Youssef Salem, the Chief Financial Officer of Swvl for smart transport, said that the company has reached its targets in 2023 by becoming profitable. Swvl aims to increase its profits with careful expansions in 2024.
Salem told Daily News Egypt that the company has started rehiring some employees who were let go earlier. They are also implementing a plan for careful expansion in key markets, with a focus on the Saudi market.
The company had cut about one-third of its workforce in 2022 to achieve profitability and lower costs. This move aimed to make the company profitable in 2023 instead of 2024 as originally planned. Swvl adopted various operational and administrative measures, relying mainly on technology rather than employees to speed up workflow and improve company performance. This helped accelerate the path to profitability.
Salem said that Swvl’s existing service lines were already profitable. However, with expansion, the company had to invest in these lines until they became profitable. The company decided to scale down its expansion plans in 2023, stopping some lines and focusing on those that were already profitable. This adjustment matched the company’s plan to speed up profit generation from 2024 to 2023.
The company’s recent financial results, released a few days ago, showed operating cash flows of $2.2m in the first half of 2023. Net profit was $2.1m in the same period, compared to a total loss of $161.6m in the same period of 2022.
Operating profit was $13.4m in the first half of 2023, compared to operating losses of $56m in the same period of 2022.
Swvl offers four services in Egypt: intra-city passenger transport, inter-city passenger transport, transport services for corporate clients, and private group transport rental services.
