Dear reader,
The following is a conversation with Syed Rajib Hossain, the founder and CEO of Garibook, a ride-hailing startup in Bangladesh.
Garibook started as an airport-transfer service for non-resident Bangladeshis. It has now evolved into a ride-hailing platform built around an unusual proposition: drivers pay a fixed subscription and keep 100% of their fares. Today, Garibook has over 35,000 approved drivers and 35 corporate clients.
In this article, we dive into:
- Why did Garibook abandon its original airport-transfer model and pivot to domestic ride-hailing?
- Why does Garibook charge drivers a subscription instead of taking a commission on every ride?
- How does its tiered subscription model work, and can it improve driver economics?
- Why does B2B currently generate 88% of Garibook’s revenue, despite the company betting its future on B2C?
- What has Garibook learned from Uber, Pathao, Shuttle, Namma Yatri, and other mobility companies?
- How did Garibook build a network of over 35,000 approved drivers across Bangladesh?
- Why did Rajib give up majority control of Garibook to a corporate investor, and what did the company gain in return?
- How would Garibook deploy the $15 million it is now looking to raise?
- Can Garibook’s zero-commission model expand beyond Bangladesh into markets such as Nepal, Vietnam, and Cambodia?
- What do foreign investors misunderstand about the scale and potential of Bangladesh?
And much more.
Biography:
Syed Rajib Hossain is the founder and CEO of Garibook, a ride-hailing startup in Bangladesh. Before founding Garibook, he worked at a Bangladesh-based digital streaming platform and icddr,b, an international health research institute.
Garibook provides ride-hailing services to individuals and businesses. This includes airport transfers and hourly car rentals (car+driver) through its mobile app. Garibook has over 35,000 partnered drivers, completing over 2,500 individual trips a month. It also serves 35 businesses with corporate transport. The company was founded in 2021 in Dhaka.
How did Garibook start?
Before starting Garibook, I worked in the telecom sector across Southeast Asia. Whenever I returned to Bangladesh, I found it difficult to arrange a reliable and secure taxi from the airport. During COVID, that experience led me to consider a transport service for non-resident Bangladeshis traveling home.
I started Garibook with three co-founders. We initially focused on airport transfers. We partnered with Bangladeshi-owned airline-ticketing agencies in Malaysia. These agencies knew when passengers were traveling to Bangladesh, and they offered a Garibook airport transfer at the point of ticket purchase. Customers could thus arrange transport from the airport to their destination before leaving Malaysia. We later used a similar model in Dubai and other markets with returning Bangladeshis.
What was the operating model for drivers?
Drivers paid a fixed fee for access to a set number of bookings each month. This was partly a practical choice, but it also addressed a broader problem in Bangladesh’s ride-hailing market.
Most local ride-hailing platforms were heavily focused on acquiring customers through discounts but paid less attention to drivers’ economics. Drivers supplied the vehicle, fuel, and labour but felt that platforms took a disproportionate cut of each fare. They had also received limited training or explanation about how the commercial relationship worked. This frustration often affected service quality, including driver behavior and vehicle maintenance.
By removing the commission entirely, Garibook flipped the script.
Why did Garibook pivot away from airport pickup?
The airport transfer model for returning Bangladeshis encountered compliance difficulties. The service was rendered in Bangladesh, but the payments were received as cross-border transfers from Malaysia. This put us in a regulatory blind spot between the central banks of Malaysia and Bangladesh.
Drivers voiced their discontent with us withdrawing this service. We pivoted to launching a domestic ride-hailing service. In doing so, we retained the subscription structure that makes Garibook unique.
Why do you believe the subscription model is more adapted to ride-hailing than the commission one?