"The future of transport looks very unequal"

RideTandem co-founders Alex Shapland-Howes and Tatseng Chiam on building a transport startup for people other than affluent urban millennials

Rochdale, U.K. Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images

This week I’m excited to be running a really excellent conversation with Alex Shapland-Howes and Tatseng Chiam, co-founders of U.K.-based mobility startup RideTandem.

Founded in 2019, RideTandem works with local transport providers like taxis or shuttle buses to provide flexible transit options in small towns and cities in the U.K. that are underserved by public transport. It’s raised £2.3 million ($2.8 million) in seed funding to tackle transport poverty, most recently closing a £1.75 million seed round in early May at a £7.8 million valuation ($9.6 million).

RideTandem’s clients are typically employers looking to offer their employees an affordable and easy way to get to work, including Primark, Royal Mail, and Banham Poultry. RideTandem doesn’t own any vehicles or employ any drivers, but provides the technology, matching, dispatch, and service management. Shapland-Howes and Chiam say clients see RideTandem’s service as a competitive advantage, a way to recruit and retain talent in parts of the country where getting to your job can be a very real barrier to having one.

We talk a lot about the ‘future of transportation,’ but an unspoken assumption in those visions is often that they’re situated in dense urban environments. That overlooks the many, many people don’t live in cities and haven’t been able to benefit from the billions of venture-capital dollars poured into ride-hail, micromobility, and other transit tech. I chatted with Shapland-Howes and Chiam about how they got interested in transport poverty, what it’s like running and raising money for a startup that serves the poorest segment of society rather than affluent urban millennials, and what the future of transportation looks like to them.

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This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.