Kenyan public transport app wins $1million USD

Magic Bus Ticketing is an offline app that allows urban commuters in Africa to check in real time the location and fare, book and pay for public buses via mobile money. The service is described as the Uber for buses, but offline. No internet is required and purportedly, their USSD/SMS application can be accessed from any basic phone.

The issues Magic Bus Ticketing aims to address are the long waiting times and overcharging that commuters face on a daily basis.

According to the CEO Leslie Ossete, Magic Bus Ticketing has been piloting in Nairobi, Kenya for the past two months and has been ranked by the local i-Hub incubator as one of the top 3 transportation startups in Kenya.

Magic Bus Ticketing was one of 6 finalists out of 25,000 applicants worldwide in the Hult Prize, the world’s largest student competition for social good. The Hult Prize is a social entrepreneurship competition judged and attended by the likes of President Bill Clinton, Mo Ibrahim, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus. On September 20th in New York, Magic Bus Ticketing won the Hult Prize finals where USD $1M in seed capital got awarded to the winning startup.