The SME Story: Bunty Monani, founder and CEO of Zofeur

What inspired you to start Zofeur?
It all started when I wanted to send my car to the service station. The customer service agent there said it would cost me Dhs150 one-way for a driver from JLT to Al Quoz. The price seemed expensive, and I remember thinking that there should be a more affordable option. So, I approached Ishrath [Hasmin] who was my colleague back then, and after conducting extensive research we concluded that there’s a big gap in the market. That’s how Zofeur was born.

Tell us about your background.
We both come from a strong finance background and used to work for an oil company as senior financial controllers before starting Zofeur.

How does Zofeur’s business model differ from that of the competition?
Zofeur is a lifestyle platform serving anyone who doesn’t want to compromise time, money and comfort. We onboard highly-trained chauffeurs onto our platform, enabling users to instantly hire chauffeurs to drive their car from one tap on their mobile. Although there are substitute services in a traditional form, there is no direct competition in the market within the tech space. We’ve built a unique technology platform allowing users to hire chauffeurs pay-per-minute basis, within 30 minutes, share ongoing trips with loved ones, track the car remotely while driven by a chauffeur, and of course, seamless payment methods.

Give us a business overview of Zofeur’s operations.
We launched in July 2020, and since then we have received tremendous traction. We raised our first external funding in May 2021 which was a seed round amounting to $500,000. Currently, we are amidst our pre-series A round of $2m which is already partially closed. To date, we have over 60,000 downloads. We have more than 130 drivers, and are onboarding more every week. We have a total office staff strength of 20.

What are some of the biggest challenges that you are facing in expanding the business?
The biggest challenge for us, and in my opinion which would apply to any startup, is to find the best talent. I strongly believe, it’s your people who will help your company grow, so it’s of critical importance to find the best candidate for every role, and at a startup pay scale, which often is a challenge.

What are your expansion plans within the region?
Currently, we are operating in Dubai and plan to expand to Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in Q1 this year. Zofeur has found a great product-market fit and we are all set for our international expansion to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain by Q2.