Swvl hosts in Berlin the leader of UK’s Labour Party

On July 13th, Swvl’s Door2door team met with Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the UK’s Labour Party at Swvl’s Berlin office. This is part of an ongoing cycle of meetings with global political leaders. The UK Parliament’s Leader of the Opposition was accompanied by Mr. David Lammy, Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.

The honorable visit included a two-hour meeting with Dr. Tom Kirschbaum and Maxim Nohroudi, co-founders of Door2door. They were joined by Kevin Foreman, Global Head for Public Sector at Swvl, and Anna Lena Remmler, Strategy & Consulting at Door2door. The thoughtful discussion revolved around current political dynamics and the urgent need to boost a new digital economy based on data and deep learning to support the transition towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Both parties enjoyed a knowledgeable and attentive discussion which covered the similar transportation challenges affecting the UK and Germany.

The Door2door leadership team showcased some of the latest technological developments applied to new, flexible, and shared transport services and the impact in the various locations where these developments have been implemented. A sizable part of the meeting revolved around the transition towards cleaner, more accessible mobility as an alternative to dependence on private vehicles, largely affecting urban and rural environments. Sir Starmer and Mr Lammy were particularly interested in understanding how new transit digital solutions can transform mobility by providing more trips with less overall traffic congestion.

According to Door2door's Co-founder Maxim Nohroudi, “Only a strong and high quality public transport will allow us to manage the transition towards more sustainable mobility. For this, new solutions are required, all above, shuttle systems in addition to existing bus and train lines. Our vision is to provide a public transport offering as convenient and comfortable as using your own car.” Dr. Tom Kirschbaum added: “we are proud to share our experiences from more than 10 years as entrepreneurs, our development towards an established, tech-based company and to discuss together with politics what it takes to further unlock the innovative potential within Europe.”

Besides Door2door, Swvl had acquired four other mobility startups in Spain, Argentina, Turkey and Mexico in the last 12 months. It also listed in New York’s Nasdaq stock market on March 31st, 2022. The company is present in a total of 20 countries and has plans for consistent growth in the coming future in new regions. Swvl’s Global Head for Public Sector, Kevin Foreman, concluded, "In the current process of integration we must be particularly sensitive to the economic and social realities of each territory and the vision of key stakeholders who are designing the wellbeing of our future societies. The visit of the UK Labor leaders brings very valuable insights and reaffirms our company’s interest in becoming an open-handed partner for policy-makers to lead this transformational process."