Tripda drives carpooling concept into Phl streets
A company founded in Brazil is now in the Philippines, seeking to help thousands of Filipinos stuck in the monstrous daily traffic grind.
The only thing that motorist need is an Internet connection and voila, plying the roads of Metro Manila becomes a bit bearable, thanks to Tripda.
Tripda is a carpooling company that connects people who are already driving from one place to another and happen to have available seats in their car with other people who also want to go to the same destination.
“So for example this weekend, I’m driving from here to somewhere, I can go to Tripda, I can register to Tripda, where I am leaving from, what time and how many seats I have available so other people can go to Tripda, find my ride and book a seat to travel with me,” says Tripda CEO Pedro Meduna in an interview with The STAR.ts
Meduna, who founded Tripda in Brazil, along with some partners, said the idea is to connect people who drive alone with extra seats in their car, with other people.
“So that at the end of the day, we can promote a more social experience among the people and also help the people that are offering their trips to share the cost of their rides. This is a very important concept, it’s about cost sharing, not profit,” he says.
Meduna says that with higher adoption of Tripda, the result is lighter traffic.
“The less cars there will be on the road. If we were not carpooling there would be three cars instead of only one. This is the main concept. We started out in Brazil. We’ve had a very successful journey in Brazil, we have very strong acceptance that we decided to expand in other markets in about six months we went from one country to 13,” he explains.
The company was founded in Brazil in 2014 and is now in 13 countries including the Philippines, which are mostly with traffic problems and poor public transportation.
“Here in the Philippines, one thing I could highlight is the poor traffic conditions that we face. If you think about how bad the traffic is, you can also understand how good opportunity carpooling is for the Philippines,” Meduna says.
To allay security fears, Tripda members must have Facebook accounts that are verified and checked by Tripda itself. It is also targeting universities and similar communities where people already know each other and are more comfortable.
The concept is similar to AirBnB, which has gone a long way and past the stereotyped creepy notion of sleeping in strangers’ homes.
Meduna says carpooling also has immense benefi for the environment as pollution would be reduced.
“Carpooling is huge in Germany. I lived for two years there. Some studies show that sometimes, the air pollution there in Delhi can be worst in China. Here in the Philippines, pollution is bad,” he says.
He also urged the government to support carpooling platforms like Tripda by providing incentives to carpoolers.
“Government can give incentives. In Argentina, you get discounts in toll if you are three people or more,” he says.
Tripda has made its debut in the Philippines in October last year. It recently announced a P485-million Series A funding round by Rocket Internet and other investors, including top tier US venture capital funds.
Tripda plans to use the new round of funding to expand its global operations and grow its user base across 13 countries where it operates, as well as continuing to develop its web and mobile product for multiple markets.
“This funding is a milestone for Tripda and sharing economy as a whole. No other company in the industry has raised such an amount in less than one year of operations. This only gave us more confidence to pursue our goal to make carpooling a mainstream transportation modal. We have a lot of work to do and this new round of funding will be key to take our Philippine operation and team to the next level. We will continue to invest into our growing community and strive to become the premier carpooling platform in Philippines,” says Erick Coser, country manager of Tripda in the Philippines.