Interview with Ahmed Nasser Co-Founder of Odiggo
By Shereen Shabnam
We recently had coffee at the Shangri La Dubai with Ahmed Nasser, Co-Founder and President of Odiggo, a one-stop-shop for everything you need for your vehicle. He tells us how the business started and how e-commerce is empowering the younger generation to come up with new ways to do business.
Odiggo is an app that connects all car owners with the best quality car parts at the lowest prices possible. It is perfect for those who wouldn’t know where to start when it comes to buying parts for their cars and need to know who has the capability to do the job and at what price.
The global market for the auto parts and accessories manufacturing industry is currently valued at US$2 Trillion and is one of the top 10 industries in the world. It is a $61 billion (AED224 billion) industry in the Middle East and Africa alone which is a brilliant opportunity for Odiggo to use its E-commerce expertise to transcend the market and become the leading company in the industry.
How did Odiggo start?
It started with Ahmed Omar who was keen on e-commerce after he sold his dad’s bike online and received part of the sales. His career and journey to Germany and the USA exposed him to the potential of e-commerce and on return to Cairo, he started new ventures with friends. In 2017, Omar launched an online with friends for used and new cars and called it Kasr-Zero with a supporting online marketplace that offers car spare parts.
It was in 2019 that we set up Odiggo which means ‘drive’ and now has revenues that have increased from 6 million to 100 million.
How big are you?
We operate in Egypt and have just launched in the UAE. Our team and investors are all over the world but the core team is about 35 people strong.
What do you offer via the App and how does the back-end technology work?
We offer a one-stop-shop for everything you need for your vehicle and the app connects all car owners with the best quality car parts at the lowest prices possible with best service provider at your doorstep including offering customers free car washes.
Describe your target audience?
There are two apps – one for customer and one for supplier. We target individual car owners and look after any type of car. We are also getting requests for our services from businesses now as well.
Are there any expansion plans?
We intend to expand to Saudi and then to other parts of the world but we also intend to expand our services and look after not just cars but also bikes and trucks in the future.
How do you select suppliers?
There is a criteria as we initially focus on the top 20 who hold the highest market share because of their track record reputation and size. Once they get a taste of the reach we have, they stay and this encourages the rest of the market to come on board. Currently we are a market leader in Egypt because of the due diligence done on our suppliers.
What’s next for Odiggo?
We will be connecting the car directly with the app using our deep-tech dashboard. By doing this we will know the accurate diagnosis of the car at the right time. This offers the best customer experience as we hope to use AI technology for OBD (On-Board Diagnostics), and enhance vehicle’s self- diagnostic and reporting capability allowing us to get data to identify between 2-3K errors in a car. This is a gamechanger for us and will see us grow tenfold in the future.
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