Bro Cabs Lets South African Drivers Keep 100% of Fares

Bro Cabs, a South African e-hailing platform with more than 30,000 registered drivers, charges no commission on trips — drivers pay a subscription instead and keep 100% of every fare. The company, launched publicly in November 2025, is now betting it can take 10% to 20% of the market against Uber and Bolt, if it can raise $1 million to scale.

Four friends built the app with proceeds from their own property-maintenance business: CEO Persy Qamata, chief operating officer Msizi Mtolo, chief marketing officer Cebile Magudulela and chief strategy officer Luther Mfetane. No venture firm financed the first version. They paid developers, bought equipment and shipped a minimum viable product themselves.

"We didn't want to do things the conventional way," Qamata told TechCabal in an interview on Monday. "We weren't going to allow a lack of financing to prevent us from getting a minimum viable product (MVP) off the ground."

How does the subscription model work?

Traditional platforms take a percentage of each completed trip. Bro Cabs reverses the structure. Drivers pay a recurring fee to access the platform and retain the full fare. Published options have included R30 ($1.81) a day, R150 ($9.04) a week and R600 ($36.14) a month.

Qamata said the design drew partly on Namma Yatri, an Indian mobility platform that has proven an alternative to commission-based e-hailing.

"We were introducing something new," he said. "We hadn't seen a model in Africa where drivers paid upfront to use an e-hailing platform while retaining 100% of their earnings."

The arithmetic for drivers is familiar. Fuel, maintenance and insurance eat into the fare shown in the app, and platform commission takes another slice.

Where did the idea come from?

Mtolo sharpened the concept from the passenger seat. After moving from KwaZulu-Natal to Johannesburg, he worked in the rental-car industry and took several e-hailing trips a day, exposing him to the commissions charged by existing platforms, according to an account Qamata shared in a separate interview.

The group had first planned to build an app for the taxi industry, using skills from a web-development project for small and medium-sized businesses. They met resistance and redirected to e-hailing.

They launched a pilot in Braamfontein, central Johannesburg, in July 2025. The initial target was 50 drivers and 100 commuters. Qamata said they signed up 710 drivers and 1,150 commuters within two months.

What is the funding story?

The founders wanted to show investors a working product, not a deck.

"We understood that before approaching angel investors, we needed to demonstrate that the business was worth investing in," Magudulela said. "We needed a working product and customers."

Their first external investor put in a relatively small amount and watched how the founders managed it. They tracked expenditure closely and reported where the money went, including marketing costs.

Venture capital firms have proven harder to convince. Magudulela said investors look at Uber's established position and question whether a smaller rival can reach scale.

"They tend to look at the potential return on investment," Magudulela said. "If they put in R10 million ($602,000) today, how long will it take to generate a meaningful return?"

Mfetane described competing against better-funded incumbents bluntly: "Everyone has a plan for how they're going to win a boxing match until they get into the ring and get hit."

Can subscriptions build a two-sided market?

A subscription fee appeals to drivers only if trips follow. Passengers come only if enough cars are available. Bro Cabs is attacking this chicken-and-egg problem through driver associations and local partnerships, with focus areas including Pretoria and Rosebank. In new markets such as Durban and Pretoria, it has offered 500 drivers free access through associations.

"It's better to concentrate on areas where partnerships are already in place," Magudulela said. "We have the partnerships. What we need now is the funding to drive adoption."

The company plans to spend on marketing through platforms such as TikTok and to reward existing users for referring new drivers and commuters. It counts over 20,000 registered riders and runs its operation with seven to eight staff.

A Bolt-commissioned Ipsos study published in April 2026 found 70% of surveyed South African gig workers use ride-hailing to supplement other earnings; 30% rely on it as their primary income. The survey covered 250 respondents across gig work, not e-hailing drivers alone. Bro Cabs says it wants to reach both groups — vehicle owners outside the e-hailing market and people seeking extra income from their cars.

Magudulela framed the stakes in household terms: "Remember, we're talking about driver earnings. When drivers earn more, their families benefit."

Mfetane believes a $1 million investment would accelerate national expansion. Until that money arrives, the four founders keep building one driver and one passenger at a time — and keep proving that a platform with zero commission can still pay its own bills.