SafeBoda, the Ugandan bike-hailing startup, after weeks of beta testing across Nigeria and Uganda, has launched its car-hailing vertical called Cars by SafeBoda to the public. Safeboda has maintained operations in only two countries, building loyal communities and scooping market shares. Today, it holds more than 80% market share of the boda-boda hailing market in Uganda and Nigeria. The startup had run a two-month-long beta test in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, gathering feedback and iterating the product, before testing in Ibadan for a week.

According to the startup, with this new vertical, it seeks to double down on the use cases of its mobile money as every trip on Car by SafeBoda would be cashless, thus eradicating the no-change headache. Customers can now use the SafeBoda Wallet to pay for trips by depositing in their wallet via mobile money, agents, or even giving cash to the driver to help them load. Customers also earn interest on any balance they have on their SafeBoda wallet via the Savings product. The wallet’s full-on functionality would only be accessible to users in Uganda for now because the wallet offering isn’t yet fully functional in Nigeria. Nigerian users can only buy airtime at the moment.