Female ridesharing service Shebah hits roadblock

It set crowd-funding records two years ago when launched but Shebah has now fallen into administration and is looking for a buyer.

Shebah boss George McEncroe.

Australia’s only women-only ridesharing business Shebah has been placed into voluntary administration, with the company seeking a sale or a restructure after it was decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sam Kaso and Rachel Burdett of Cor Cordis have been appointed administrators to the company, which set crowd-funding records in 2019 when it raised $3m from 2100 investors, 94 per cent of whom were women.

Shebah chief executive Georgina McEncroe, a former comedian, said revenues had plummeted by 70 per cent due to school and workplace closures across Victoria and New South Wales. She said Shebah has a pool of 1000 drivers but less than half have been active during lockdowns.

The company offers a female-friendly ridesharing service, only allowing women drivers and allowing women, unaccompanied children or men travelling with car seats to ride in its vehicles.

“Women have suffered disproportionately during Covid and we have learned how much many women rely on this service to make them feel safe for themselves and their children,” she said.

“I just feel really disappointed but I’m hopeful the administrators can get a sale and the shareholders can get some of their money back if not all, and that the service can continue.”

Unlike the likes of Uber or Didi, Shebah is the only rideshare business with licences to transport unaccompanied children, which Ms McEncroe said is used often by working women for school kids, or transport of foster children.

Shebah is Australia’s only women-only ridesharing business.

Financial documents show Shebah, based in Melbourne, was growing at around 8 per cent month-on-month before the pandemic hit.

The company turned over $1.8 million in 2018, up from $500,000 in 2017. The company was operating in most of the major cities across the country.

Administrator Sam Kaso said he try to save the company through a sale or restructure.

“Shebah will continue to operate as normal while we stabilise the business and assess the operations before calling for expressions of interest.”

Ms McEncroe said she had received offers more funding from some of the company’s crowfunder backers, but it ‘wouldn’t have been ethical’ to take more money at this point.

“I think there might be a number of people (who would be interested in buying the business),” she said.

“It’s a fair regulated sector so someone who was passionate about getting into all the nitty gritty of how all the transactions have to work, and how all the data has to be managed and all of those things.

“Having said that, I think a tech company could easily purchase it and do some of the things with it that we were one day hoping to do like add people’s qualifications for example, if you wanted to have a certificate in early childhood or in aged care or something, or spoke a particular language, you could add that, so that the drivers become very much their own business people.

“I’m not bitter, I’m just disappointed.”