A group of students from Earlham College in Indiana have been awarded $1m in start-up capital for their initiative to optimise public transport in developing countries in this year’s Hult Prize competition.
Now in its sixth year, the Hult Prize is the largest competition in the world for student social entrepreneurs, held in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative.
“It was a thrill to see them compete so well and to imagine the transformative change this plan can create”
The ‘Magic Bus’ project beat out 25,000 applicants from more than 150 countries for this year’s coveted prize, answering former President Bill Clinton’s ‘Crowded Urban Spaces’ challenge to put forward a startup that would double the income of 10 million people by 2022.
Magic Bus is an offline mobile app designed to streamline the informal minibus system used by 70% of people in Africa and standardise prices, using text messaging to allocate tickets.
The team behind the project – Iman Cooper, Leslie Ossete, Sonia Kabra and Wyclife Omondi — conducted a nine-week pilot of Magic Bus near Nairobi with a local minibus owner this summer.
Presenting the award in Boston, Clinton noted that the app offers an innovative solution to a transport system that is “plagued with inefficiencies”.
“Inconsistent pricing sometimes ends up with commuters spending as high as 40% of their daily income,” he noted.
“With unknown rider demand along the routes and long wait times in crowded terminals, Nairobi loses an estimated $5.4m in lost productivity every year.”
Congratulating the winners, he said: “In addition to providing greater mobility and access, Magic Bus will increase productivity and put more money in the hands of the people you all came here to help.”
“This is a really clever idea,” Clinton added. “Some wag will soon call it Uber for buses.”
Earlham’s president, David Dawson, congratulated the team on their success, saying: “It was a thrill to see them compete so well and to imagine the transformative change this plan can create.”
“I am also gratified that the success of the Magic Bus team exemplifies exactly what we hope for our students — that they find opportunities to hone their individual gifts, explore global issues, and bring their passions to the challenge of creating positive change in the world.”