Angkas pushes for inclusive mobility thru tech

Angkas founder and CEO Angeline Tham believes the new capabilities of digital technology will help in making mass transportation in the country more inclusive while giving low-income family households sustainable livelihoods.

Tham, at the recent Go Negosyo Youth Entrepreneurship Summit 2019, said that she founded Angkas a couple of years back in response to the challenging state of mass transportation in the country and alleviate the problems with the help of technology.

“People were having a difficult time commuting for a variety of reasons and we wanted a safe and reliable way to move people around,” Tham said in her talk. With this in mind, Tham turned to technology to create a service that would connect commuters to motorcycle riders willing to take them to their destination.

“Traditionally there’s been habalhabal in this country that’s been used for forty years. But we wanted to professionalize the service, make it safer, and give our driver partners a livelihood,”Tham revealed. “And we did that with the help of digital technology,” she added.

However, Tham pointed out that the greatest challenge that Angkas has had to face since its inception was the stigma attached to motorcycles. “Motorcycles were seen as killing machines,” Tham pointed out. “And this stigma was something we had to erase by proving to everyone that motorcycles can be as safe, or even safer, than cars,” she added.

Tham was invited to talk about technological disruption in business, particularly in the transport industry. “Technology allowed us to make mobility inclusive in the Philippines,” Tham revealed. “It should be for everyone, regardless of class, race, and gender,” she added.

She also noted that one out of three Filipino families own a motorcycle and half of the motorcycle owners depend on the motorcycle for livelihood. “Over 99% of motorcycle owners belong to low-income households. This is really the market Angkas wants to address,” Tham stressed.

Tham is no stranger to the tech industry, being a serial entrepreneur who launched one of the top online auction outfits in Singapore called Sold.sg.