Working bicycle in Moshi, Tanzania (2013)

Baisikeli Ugunduzi is a for-profit

social business Social business was defined by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and is described in his books. In these books, Yunus defined a social business as a business: * Created and designed to address a social problem * A non-loss, no ...

that specializes in bicycle components for the

Sub-Sahara Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the African co ...

n African market. ''Baisikeli Ugunduzi'' means innovative or modern bicycles in Swahili. It was founded in the winter of 2011 by Ben Mitchell, whom holds a MS in mechanical engineering as is currently seeking his PhD at

Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. ...

and John Gershenson, a professor of mechanical engineering at MTU. Baisikeli Ugunduzi is headquartered in

Kitale Kitale is an agricultural town in northern Rift Valley Kenya situated between Mount Elgon and the Cherangany Hills at an elevation of around . Its population is 106,187 as of 2009. Kitale is the headquarter town of Trans-Nzoia County. Kitale is r ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, Africa. It is considered a for-profit social venture, where it develops human-centered products, which seeks to raise the income of

boda boda Boda bodas are bicycles and motorcycle taxis commonly found in East Africa. While motorcycle taxis like boda bodas are present throughout Africa and beyond, the term ''boda boda'' is specific to East Africa. In Kenya, they are more frequently ca ...

, who rely on the bicycle as a means of livelihood.

Funding

Baisikeli Ugunduzi was awarded $100,000 in Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) stage 1 funding from

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

. The enterprise won first place in the

Central Michigan University Central Michigan University (CMU) is a public research university in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Established in 1892 as the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute, the private normal school became a state institution and renamed Cen ...

New Venture Competition, worth $30,000, plus an additional $10,000 for Best Social Venture, was awarded "Top 40 Project 2012" in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, and was a semi-finalist for an

Echoing Green In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the list ...

Fellowship. A campaign to raise $40,000 in 40 days on Indiegogo, however, was unsuccessful. In April 2014, Baisikeli Ugunduzi placed third in the Global Social Venture Challenge where they were awarded $7,500.

Product

Their first product is a bicycle tire inner tube replacement made of an elastic material, called the ''Milele Tube'', which cannot go flat. ''Milele'' means forever in Swahili. It is a solid, cylindrical piece of elastic material that replaces the standard inner tube and can be cut to length to fit any size tire. It is being made with three different firmness levels. There is a soft tube for the front tire, which carries less of the total load; a medium tube for light loads on the rear; and a firm tube for heavy loads such as passengers or cargo. One test rider used the firm tube to carry for . They approximate a pneumatic tube at . The first day of sales was April 6, 2013.

Market

More than 5 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa depend on bicycles to earn a living, such as

operators, and they can spend up to a quarter of their incomes just to fix flat tires. Traditional bicycle tubes cost $3, and the Milele tube cost just over $10, but can last up to five years.

References

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Funding

Product

Market

See also

References

External links