Little, the taxi hailing app has announced that they will be venturing into the logistics market. According to a statement by the CEO, Kamal Budhabhatti, development follows a successful run-in corporate can hailing, which the cab launched a few years ago.
Little is currently piloting the service with two corporate customers. Commercial launch should be announced during the first week of June 2022.
Little is not the only company taking advantage of the huge need for logistics services. Other companies have been in the space for an extended period, including Sendy which even offers fulfillment services. Little, on the other hand, is not offering fulfillment for the moment.
CEO Kamal had this to say, “We learned and mastered the art of Corporate Ride Hailing – and became a dominant player. Now it’s time to learn again. Launching Little Logistics. City, Intercity, and Cross border. Little App. Super excited. I can’t stop thinking about how great our team is. We have several customers on Little who have been demanding for such service, and clearly telling us that services and products from other providers are not up to the mark compared to Little services. So, we realized the need.”
The service will be accessed via a Corporate Portal. It will also be available on the Little app just as an extension.
The first phase of the product will serve customers in major towns in Kenya. There are also plans to expand the service regionally.
This comes months after the company announced a partnership with leading cinema outlets in the country to offer movie tickets. The deal allows customers to book tickets on the Little Cab app and get snacks and free rides to and from the movie theatre.
The firm, targeting alternative revenue streams, has partnered with Century Cinemax – with theatres at Sarit, Junction and Garden City malls, Anga -Diamond and Sky Panari, and Motion Cinemas.
Little CEO Kamal said that the feature would save on time used to browser different movie platforms to buy tickets.
“We have made it easier for our customers to book movie tickets and snacks from wherever they are through this new offering. You will be able to view the movie trailer before booking your ticket,” said Mr Budhabhatti.
Little is leveraging on its existing network and customer base to break into the segment, recovering from the Covid-19 impact and facing threats from piracy and competition from online streaming services such as Netflix and Showmax.
The industry depends on tickets sold, with the revenues divided among the movie distributors, cinema and the studio.