Company Name: eBee Africa
Location: Kenya
Industry: e-mobility
Apps Implemented: Accounting, Inventory, Employees, Payroll, Website, E-commerce, H.R., CRM, Subscription, Sales, Repairer, Manufacturing
Number of users: 40
Implementation partner: Advance Insight

eBee, a pioneering company within last-mile logistics, is reshaping the transportation landscape in Kenya. Founded from a vision to alleviate congestion and pollution in urban areas, eBee seeks to revolutionise urban mobility by introducing e-bikes as competitive affordable electric vehicles (EVs). Isidoor Maljers, co-founder of eBee, shares, "Our mission is to create green jobs for women and youth and cities free from congestion and pollution." 

The idea for eBee stemmed from the rapid growth of last-mile logistics and the absence of a homegrown e-bike business in sub-Saharan Africa. Isidoor Maljers recognised an opportunity to address the pressing need for cost-effective delivery solutions while simultaneously capitalising on the untapped potential of the e-bike market. "We saw a gap in the market and an opportunity in the last mile," he explains.

Since July 2022, the very year in which eBee was born, the brand-new company has been leveraging Odoo as its comprehensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. eBee’s core focus is on the operational side. This means that the team was specifically after ERP features that support and streamline the purchase of components, the inventory of those components, the manufacturing of the e-bikes, and the registration of the e-bikes into inventory. 

And of course, everything integrated with accounting. Odoo offers exactly the support eBee needs in these operations, facilitating integration across all various Departments.

Isidoor Maljers attests to the transformative impact of Odoo on eBee's operations, stating, “I think it's amazing how much value for money you get in terms of variety of apps. ERP features such as Asset Management and Accounting are the best out there. It makes operations much easier and you don't have to tie systems together. You don't have to bring in app developers for APIs. It's very integrated, very complete."

Advance Insight customised Odoo to align with eBee's specific requirements, particularly in asset tracking within their fleet of e-bikes. Isidoor explains, "As soon as we manufacture a bike, it becomes a bike with a serial number in Odoo." This customisation enables eBee to manage repairs, track inventory, and facilitate the leasing or selling of bikes seamlessly.

A recent Odoo solution that Advance Insight customised for eBee is the payout system for riders who are active across various platforms, such as Uber, Glovo, or Leta. Riders can create an account, request repairs and get an overview of their rides and what they’ve earned. eBee can, in turn, pay all variable salaries to riders in bulk, directly from Odoo. Through a csv/excel file, rider data is imported into Odoo, after which all rides are connected to a rider. Through algorithms, Odoo calculates rider salaries automatically, including costs or bonuses.

This efficient, in-house solution resulted in more control and a major return on investment, as eBee now no longer depends on an external party that was largely handling these payouts Manually.

Simultaneously, customisation posed a challenge in the early stages of the implementation process. Especially when you use Odoo as your ERP from the beginning, it’s easy to think of possibilities rather than limitations. As Isidoor Maljers explains: “It’s a challenge not to want to jump straight ahead to customisation. Many people involved had strong ideas of what they envisioned, while Advance Insight first integrates and maximises the Odoo standard application before customising solutions. That took some expectation management and very straightforward communication.”

As eBee continues to grow and expand, Odoo remains instrumental in driving operational efficiency and scalability. Odoo's scalability empowers eBee to expand its operations geographically without encountering significant hurdles. Isidoor highlights, "Even when we started in Uganda, we literally just had to clone the database.”

What’​s next? Isidoor Maljers envisions further customisation and development of customer-facing applications to enhance user experience and streamline processes. As eBee continues to widen its horizons, Odoo will play its part in achieving eBee’s mission of creating thousands of green jobs and cleaner, congestion-free cities.