Samrawit Fikru (
Amharic
Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...
: ሳምራዊት ፍቅሩ) is an Ethiopian
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
,
entrepreneur, and businesswoman who is the founder and CEO of Hybrid Designs, a software development company which produces the most popular
ridesharing app in the country, RIDE.
Early life and education
Fikru was born in
Asella,
Ethiopia. She received her diploma in
software engineering from MicroLink Information Technology College in 2004. She graduated with a
BSc in
computer science from the
HiLCoE School of Computer Science and Technology in 2006.
Prior to coming to
Addis Ababa when she was 17, she had never seen or used a computer.
Career
Fikru founded the software development company Hybrid Designs in 2014.
The same year, Hybrid Designs released RIDE as an
SMS
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
-based
ridesharing service. It was relaunched as a
mobile app with a backing
call center
A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. ...
in July 2017.
RIDE was inspired by the difficulty Fikru experienced trying to hire a
taxi cab after late nights at work.
She also wanted to create a service to address the safety concerns felt by herself and others in trying to find a taxi, and developed RIDE to help address these gaps.
As of 2020, the app has tens of thousands of users and has been downloaded over 50,000 times.
The development staff for the app is 90% female.
Fikru aims to inspire other women with her work: "Women-owned business are growing in number; now we need more young girls to access the finances to make their creative ideas happen."
In 2022, Fikru released ''Sewasew'', a
streaming platform for
Ethiopian music.
Honors and awards
*Fikru was recognized as one of the Rest of World's 100 Global Tech Changemakers
*Fikru's success as a tech entrepreneur and her inspiration to young women were recognised by her inclusion on the
BBC's 100 Women list in 2022.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fikru, Samrawit
21st-century Ethiopian women
21st-century women engineers
Ethiopian chief executives
Ethiopian women in business
Ethiopian women computer scientists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Women chief executives
Women company founders
21st-century Ethiopian people