Interviewed By Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee, Team MBR

Shuttle is a mobility-tech startup focused on making daily commutes safe and affordable for middle-income people, especially women, in Bangladesh. The company groups 4–10 people together in a single vehicle, charging less than one-third the price of regular ride-sharing cars. Shuttle started its journey back in 2018 as a women-only service and later branched out to B2B and unisex services as well. They also recently launched ‘Shuttle for School’ in collaboration with Dhaka North City Corporation. Team MBR was in a conversation with the co-founder and president of Shuttle, Mr. Reyasat Chowdhury, and had the opportunity to learn about his inspirations behind forming the startup and his future aspirations surrounding Shuttle.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: After completing your graduation, you joined a multinational telecom company, which you left in 2018 to form Shuttle. Would you kindly share with us how you came up with the idea to form Shuttle?

Reyasat Chowdhury: Since childhood, I have always wanted to become an entrepreneur, but I never knew how to take the first step. During my undergrad at North South University, I had regular discussions with friends on how we could start something that would have a positive impact on society and be financially sustainable. During one of these discussions, my university senior Jawwad, who is now a co-founder at Shuttle, shared his concerns about public transportation. That is when we decided to tackle this major problem in our country.

Initially, we wanted to work with bus owners to help them automate their processes with an app that allowed customers to book seats and track buses. However, we quickly realised that bus owners were not willing to cooperate and were content with the status quo. We also understood that changing the public transportation system required government intervention and infrastructural changes. As a startup, we did not want to wait for these changes, so we decided to launch a service on our own. We opted to provide the service with mini-vans because this did not require any route permits or special permissions. That is how the idea of Shuttle came about.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Shuttle has multiple revenue streams, which include daily rides, rides under B2B arrangements, women-only rides, transportation for schools, and so on. Would you kindly shed some light on the current revenue drivers of Shuttle?

Reyasat Chowdhury: Yes, currently we offer four services: a) regular Shuttle service (unisex), b) women-only rides, c) Shuttle for Business (B2B), and d) Shuttle for School. Our individual customers can buy single rides or subscribe for the entire month. Our business clients pay a monthly fee for the vehicles they use. For Shuttle for School, we offer different models based on the requirements. In addition to the previously mentioned models, Shuttle for School also offers an app subscription fee option.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Multiple local and international ride-sharing companies are operating in Bangladesh currently. May we know how Shuttle keeps differentiating itself from its competitors?

Reyasat Chowdhury: At Shuttle, we group 4–10 people together in a single vehicle and charge less than one-third the price of regular ride-sharing cars. Middle-income people in Bangladesh do not feel safe commuting using public transport, and regular ride-sharing cars are very expensive for everyday commutes. Hence, we feel there is a huge gap in the market. Our goal is to provide all the conveniences of typical ride-sharing services at one-third the cost, with an added layer of safety measures.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Shuttle started as an affordable ride-sharing service for women only, which later diversified its product portfolio. Would you kindly share with us the factors that shape the product designs at Shuttle?

Reyasat Chowdhury: Since the beginning, we have always aimed to be customer-centric and have been designing solutions based on customer feedback. When we decided to launch our service with mini-vans, we began by engaging with potential customers, university students, and office-goers, gathering insights from over 700 people. Through these conversations, we discovered that while public transportation comes with some significant issues for everyone, it is especially severe for women. One key insight from potential female users was that they did not care much about the app or technology; they mainly wanted to commute in a vehicle where they did not have to share rides with male passengers. Hence, we decided to launch Shuttle as a women-only service.

For our initial test, we skipped app development and launched the service manually to gauge customer response. We circulated a Google Form in university groups with the core message, 'safe transportation for women’. Surprisingly, 944 female students signed up, providing insights into preferred routes. Renting two mini-vans, we initiated the service, reaching over 100 daily rides within a week through word of mouth without any spending on marketing. Although the manual approach proved challenging to maintain, resulting in a less-than-optimal experience for customers and occasional mistakes, it effectively served its primary purpose, which was assessing demand for our service and identifying essential features needed for the future app.

Later, one of the largest multinational banks in Bangladesh approached us, sharing the transportation challenges they faced for their employees. This discussion prompted us to launch our B2B solution for businesses. Similarly, many parents reached out to us asking for a safe transportation solution for their school-going children, which led us to launch the Shuttle for School service.

(From Left: Mr. Jawwad Jahangir, Co-Founder and COO, Shuttle; Mr. Reyasat Chowdhury, Co-Founder and President, Shuttle; and Mr. Hesham Rajmi, CEO, Shuttle)

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: In April 2024, you stepped down from the role of CEO of Shuttle. May we know your thoughts behind making this decision? Would you kindly share with us the role you are going to play in the company moving forward?

Reyasat Chowdhury: We have been going through a transition period in our strategy over the last year. I felt that, as part of this transition, the company needed a new CEO with fresh energy to take it forward. Successfully executing a proper succession is every founder's dream, and we are thrilled to have found someone like Hesham Rajmi to lead Shuttle. With several years of experience at Uber Bangladesh and Uber India, Hesham joined Shuttle last year as VP and has already made significant strides in improving efficiency and moving us closer to profitability. I am fully confident that he is the right person to lead Shuttle to new heights.

In my new role as president of the company, while I will not be involved in day-to-day operations, I will continue to support and guide the leadership team (Hesham and Jawwad) to ensure we reach our milestones.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Shuttle has launched B2B services and onboarded multiple reputed multinational and local companies. May we know a bit about the services Shuttle offers to its corporate customers?

Reyasat Chowdhury: Organisations face numerous challenges when providing transportation for their employees. They need to ensure that vehicles arrive on time, drivers do not miss duties, and drivers are properly trained in how to communicate with employees. Our goal is to handle these responsibilities so that our clients do not have to worry about them. We create customised plans for each client based on their specific requirements.

We provide a dashboard to the HR/Admin teams of our clients, allowing them to monitor the entire operation in real-time. This includes tracking how many vehicles are running, how many employees are using the service, and the total bills for the month. Employees can also track their vehicles and access driver information through an app. Additionally, we assign a relationship manager to each client so that they have a dedicated point of contact for any complaints or feedback.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Shuttle offers commission-free fixed-income opportunities to its partners, who are basically the transport owners. Would you kindly shed some light on the commission-free concept and revenue-sharing arrangement with the partners?

Reyasat Chowdhury: We provide a pre-determined fixed payment to our partners (suppliers) based on trips, ensuring that vehicle owners never incur any losses. We do not charge a commission based on ride fares. This model helps us ensure that drivers do not suffer when there are not enough passengers.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Shuttle has raised a total of USD 2.5 million in funding from multiple international and local investors so far. Would you kindly share with us Shuttle’s plans for further fund-raising and expansion?

Reyasat Chowdhury: The investments we have raised thus far have been crucial in bringing us to our current stage. Our immediate priority is to achieve profitability while continuing to grow. Recently, we launched a new service, Shuttle for School, and our goal now is to scale this service along with expanding our other verticals.