As it prepares for the soft launch of its product in the coming weeks, Spritely Technologies Inc. has been accepted into the summer 2017 Project Incubation Bootcamp in Halifax.
Founded by serial entrepreneur and hyper-networker Akram Al-Otumi, Spritely is developing an online platform that will help newcomers to a city find people who can help them get settled. The company has already assembled a network of what it calls “city experts” in Halifax. Spritely users (who are new arrivals in the city) can hire these experts to show them the best restaurants, help them find schools and medical facilities, and introduce them to the local customs.
“Spritely is a mobile app and a web platform that connects newcomers and tourists with local knowledge,” said Al-Otumi in an interview last week. “We endeavor to improve people’s lives when they are relocating.”
The Spritely team understands the ups and downs of settling into a new city. Al-Otumi is a native of Yemen who came to Halifax to study at Dalhousie University, and later received a Masters of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at St. Mary’s University. Chief Technology Officer Suhaib Qaiser, who has worked for Blackberry and Salesforce, previously attended university in Pakistan and is now a PhD candidate at Dalhousie.
For the past few months, they have been working on a vision of using a model similar to Uber to help people settle in a new city. The problem they address is a common one for new students in a city, or people who are transferred for work. Even if they speak the language of their new home town, they need to learn about transportation networks, schools, medical facilities, social events and the local culture.
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Using the Spritely app, they can now scroll through a range of city experts and find someone who matches their needs – similar age and family makeup, maybe their first language is the same. The newcomers can use Spritely to hire that newcomer to show them around and help them settle in.
Meanwhile, the local experts can make money and enjoy themselves by showing people around.
“The product has a lot of features, from a search engine to a chat engine, a lot of features that help people communicate better with the local experts,” said Al-Otumi. “It’s very user friendly.”
Spritely has been testing the platform with about 30 people from different backgrounds, and has a list of about 100 people who can be local experts. Al-Otumi has been talking to five to eight companies from around Nova Scotia about using the system to help settle people they’re bringing to the province.
The company, which is raising a small round of funding, is planning to launch in Halifax and then move on to larger cities like Toronto or New York. It’s planning a soft launch next month, and through the Project Incubation bootcamp will further test the platform through the summer.
Project Incubation is a 12-week program for as many as 40 students, offering them support with an existing project. Spritely has entered the program through Shiftkey Labs, one of the provincial government’s sandbox programs.
“We’re very excited to join the Project Incubation Bootcamp this summer,” said Al-Otumi. “It’s a great opportunity for us to develop the product further as we prepare for a full launch and going to market.”