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In Botswana, most people use their cars for driving to work and holiday travel, leaving them idle most of the time. Meanwhile, thousands of people are looking to rent cars for either long-haul or local travel, but are avoidant of rental services whose fees they deem exorbitant.
So how can technology bridge the gap between these people? That is what MobiRides, a mobility startup founded in 2024 by Modisa Maphanyane, is trying to do. The platform connects car owners looking to make extra income from their idle cars and renters looking to use a car for travel.
BW TechZone caught up with Maphanyane to hear more on MobiRides's journey, the magnitude of the problem they are solving and how traction has been so far.
What is MobiRides, and what problem is it solving?
MobiRides is a peer-to-peer vehicle rental platform that connects private car owners with individuals and businesses who need flexible, affordable transport. In Botswana, mobility is fragmented, and access is limited; at the same time, thousands of privately owned vehicles sit idle most of the time. We’re not solving a supply problem; we’re solving an access and utilisation problem.
What inspired you to start the company?
Before building MobiRides, I ran a manual car rental business for two years. I experienced the friction firsthand: security risks, inconsistent demand, manual processes, and ultimately, the inability to scale. That business failed.
MobiRides exists so that the next generation of operators doesn’t have to learn those lessons the hard way.
How does the platform work?
Vehicle owners list their cars and earn income from rentals, while renters can browse and book quickly through a mobile-first experience. We handle verification, payments (including mobile money), booking coordination, and structured handovers. We’re formalising what is currently an informal, high-risk market.
What is your core value proposition compared with traditional rental companies?
Traditional rental companies are centralised, slow, and limited in supply. MobiRides unlocks a much broader, decentralised fleet by enabling private vehicle owners to participate. Traditional rental companies build fleets, but we unlock a national fleet that already exists.
Who are your primary users today?
We’re seeing two clear user groups:
• Renters looking for flexible, affordable transport
• Vehicle owners looking to generate income from underutilised assets
Some users are solving mobility — others are solving income.
How do you ensure trust, safety, and insurance?
Trust is central to the platform.
We’ve built a structured trust layer that includes multi-layer identity verification, transaction transparency, and telematics integration. We are also embedding insurance directly into the platform to reduce risk for both owners and renters. In a peer-to-peer model, trust is not a feature. It is the foundation of the entire system.
How large is the opportunity?
Botswana alone has over 600,000 registered vehicles, many of which are underutilised. Across the SADC region, mobility demand is growing, but access remains constrained by cost, credit barriers, and inefficiencies in traditional systems. The opportunity is not just in rentals; it’s in building mobility infrastructure for the region.
What traction has MobiRides achieved so far?
Since going live in 2025, we’ve seen consistent and measurable traction:
• Revenue: P311,245 for FY2025
• Growth: ~305% increase over the year (monthly revenue scaling from ~P14K to ~P54K)
• Paying users: 80
• ARPU: ~P3,900 per paying user
• Gross margin: ~18% and improving
What matters most for us is not just scale, but consistent upward momentum and improving unit economics.
How does the company generate revenue?
Our primary revenue comes from a 15% commission on each rental transaction. We are now expanding monetisation through dynamic pricing, embedded services such as insurance and maintenance, and upcoming financing models like Rent2Buy. We’re focused on increasing revenue per transaction, not just increasing the number of users.
What have been the biggest challenges?
The biggest challenges have been building trust in a new model and operating within limited capital while scaling. The model is working, but the real constraint now is how fast we can scale it.
What are your priorities for the next 12–24 months?
Our focus is on:
• Scaling both supply and demand
• Improving monetisation per transaction
• Strengthening infrastructure, particularly insurance and automation
We’ve validated the model, now we’re building the systems to scale it.
Are there plans to expand beyond Botswana or introduce new services?
Yes. Botswana is our foundation, and we plan to expand into selected SADC markets once the model is fully optimised locally. We are also building toward embedded insurance, fleet management tools, and financing pathways for vehicle owners. We’re building a platform that evolves from rentals into broader mobility and financial infrastructure.
Can you share your current fundraising and valuation context?
MobiRides is currently raising capital to scale the platform and strengthen its infrastructure. Our valuation is grounded in early traction, strong growth momentum, and a clear pathway to improving unit economics through additional monetisation layers. The focus of this round is to scale the team, expand supply and demand, and accelerate embedded services.
We’ve built efficiently to this point — this raise is about accelerating what is already working.
What is the future of MobiRides?
As MobiRides continues to grow, the focus is shifting from proving the concept to building durable systems that can scale across markets. With steady traction, improving unit economics, and a clear roadmap for embedded services such as insurance and financing, the company is positioning itself beyond a simple rental platform. For Maphanyane, the goal is not just to digitise car rentals, but to formalise an entire informal mobility economy and create new income pathways for vehicle owners while expanding access to transport across the region. If successful, MobiRides won’t just participate in the mobility market; it will help define how it is structured across Southern Africa.