Guest Blog - History of Bob Eco: How Bob Eco Sets Itself Apart.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

The fundamentals of Bob Eco started in 2017, when the founders began providing small loans to individuals across emerging markets. Employment creation is priority.

Bob Eco offers asset finance across emerging markets to stimulate human potential. Bob Eco challenges the status quo and provides underserved people a frictionless opportunity to create a stable income and live life to the fullest.

Bob Eco’s motto is: Access equals opportunity!

The founders went on a mission with a far-reaching impact. The idea was simple — use asset finance, technology, and a customer-centric model to help informal sector entrepreneurs dramatically increase their economic trajectory, thereby creating over 200,000 jobs. From financing to value added services to new opportunities, Bob Eco is building a long-term ecosystem for MSMEs to grow and thrive with Bob Eco as their partner.

The social impact Bob Eco made is massive

Benefits of access to low interest asset financing include:
1) Enabling entrepreneurs to start or expand micro, small, and medium- sized enterprises;
2) Savings help families to build assets; they can finance school fees, improve homes (e.g., install power or running water), and achieve goals.

By providing credit for income generating assets, Bob Eco recorded month-on-month growth of more than 30% in loan requests and disbursement.

THE DOWNSIDE OF THE BUSINESS MODEL

At the same time, Bob Eco experienced that 94.3% of all loan requests were used for taxi vehicle financing, and therein lies the problem. Bob Eco was helping to move people out of extreme poverty by majorly threatening human and environmental health.

Bob Eco was actively promoting a big source of carbon emissions: ubiquitous fuel powered motorcycles. These CO2-spewing two-wheelers are a huge obstacle to decarbonization.

WHAT MAKES BOB ECO UNIQUE

There are an estimated 30 million motorcycle taxis operating in African countries, with some driving up to 10 hours a day, often covering hundreds of kilometres daily. Bob Eco is pioneering the switch to electric and has established a goal that over the next ten years, almost all African motorcycles will be electric.

Motorcycles make up more than half of all vehicles in Africa. Their simple engines lack the sort of costly emission- reduction technology that modern cars have. Meanwhile, they are being used for over 100 kilometres per day — that's a lot of pollution! In most African countries, riders spend more in a year on petrol than the cost of a new motorcycle. Bob Eco offers an alternative in the same style as their current motorcycle that costs less to buy, less to power, and less to maintain.

BOB ECO OFFERS WHAT IS REALLY NEEDED

Bob Eco offers its electric motorcycles to local people on a lease-to-own basis. This means that people can own the Bob electric motorcycle after a maximum term of 30 months. Training, life and medical insurance, and high quality safety gear are all included, and Bob's staff actively support clients to reach their ownership goals.

Bob Eco offers the Bob users the world's first mass-market electric vehicle that costs less to acquire, maintain, and operate than a fuel vehicle. Most motorcycle taxi riders spend over $11 USD daily on fuel and vehicle leasing costs but take home as little as $1.50 USD to their families each day.

Bob Eco riders save over $1.23 USD on fuel a day and increase their take home pay by more than 46%.

Years of work have gone into identifying the correct market, designing the business model alongside Bob Eco users to acquire the perfect fit. Bob Eco ensures their electric motorcycle is the obvious choice for their customers by putting serious amounts of money back into the pockets of low-income riders and their families.

‘What Bob Eco does is helping people to help themselves.’