Meet Winchat: The Transport-Tech Startup From the Streets of Kuwait

It all happened when Adeeb Tenawi and Mohammed Ali found themselves stranded in the middle of the road, and then the solution simply, just emerged. As every problem gets resolved, a thousand more arise. Subjected to tremendous stress and excessively unreasonable prices, the founders did not have an alternative. Which is why they created Winchat, a limited liabilities company owned and run by Tenawi and Ali.

Through their mobile app of the same name, the startup operates as a mediator between customers and all possible car service providers; from towing trucks, roadside assistance vans, dealerships, garages, portable car washes, or even car rental offices. With the ongoing fast pace of technological development, the enthusiastic Kuwaiti plans to leverage applicable technological advancement to progress their app and users, as they plan to conquer Kuwait, with expansion plans covering Saudi Arabia, UAE and the rest of GCC. 

By utilising modern day technology to turn what used to be a painful hassle into a feasibly entertaining process, the platform aims to equate supply to meet demand; with transparency being the main driver, customers are in the loop throughout the entire process.

“For instance, a customer’s car breaks down. Winchat allows them to request help and immediately get a list of different bids from service providers with a proposed price and time of arrival,” says Ali, explaining the customers freedom of choosing the most appropriate and convenient offer, complete the payment using different available payment options, then sit back and watch their rescue come to their aid via geo-tracking. After the service is complete, the customer is free to provide feedback of their experience in order to ensure all services are conducted up to standard.

By providing a double-sided solution, Winchat service providers gain exposure, direct customer communication and secure payment through a completely digitised, and could be compared to the Egyptian counterpart and emerging startup Mayday. Additionally, consumers get comfortable and around-the-clock roadside assistance, pay security to a variety of service providers, provide rating and track their progress.

“Winchat has been developed by the best in business. We have conducted plenty of research on the roadside assistance gap in Kuwait and the region, only to discover that there is a large gap in the automotive services sector in general," says Ali. "It is always a pain to deal with garages, winches, rental offices, and car washes. We have constructed the operations flow ourselves, ensuring we are aligned with our main driver, which is: customer satisfaction.” 

The self-funded, and self-established startup was boot-started without relying on external funding or investment, as both founders took it upon themselves to fill the gap, providing an efficient blend of services to disrupt the ecosystems. “When chatting with industry leaders over the past months, the amount of acknowledgment and recognition we have received reiterated the importance of believing in ourselves and our dream,” says Tenawi.