RouteWatche Safety Data Platform

The lack of real-time data and early alert information about various incidents including kidnapping, child trafficking, gender violence, terrorist attacks etc., makes community safety management harder. According to SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy, there were up to 582 kidnap incidents with victims abducted from schools, their homes and highways, with over USD 18 million paid as ransom between 2011 and 2020 in Nigeria.  

Nigeria has grappled with secret syndicate of child-harvesting for years to the extent that in 2006, the UNESCO labelled the activity “baby factory”, explaining that it was the third most heinous crime in Nigeria after drug trafficking and financial crime. Till today, organized criminal gangs still camp women, especially young girls in hideouts and get them impregnated by men for the sale of babies after delivery to childless couples or for rituals. Some people might have information about this activity in their neighbourhood but lack the tool such as RouteWatche for confidential case referral and reports.

Domestic and sexual violence incidents go unreported in many cases. The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency reported 4,860 domestic and sexual violence cases in 2022. Published reports also show that nearly half of women and girls between 15-49 years facing physical or sexual violence do not tell anyone about their experience of violence, and only one-third seek help. These challenges with seeking help or reporting cases can be resolved with the use of a technological platform that allows victims to confidentially register cases for treatment by the relevant agency.

In Nigeria, non centralized security information makes it impossible for citizens to take security decisions on their own or report crimes. The challenging security situation is worsened by understaffed and under equipped national bodies in the country. They can hardly create sufficient intelligence to prevent terrorism, kidnapping, and other security breaches. The national emergency number 112 and state emergency numbers for instance 767 in Lagos state all work, but only during good network connectivity. Moreover, a security portal database and online incident filing system holds back key results in the fight against all manners of insecurity.

RouteWatche’s offering such as the incidents tracking and case referrals solution targets victims of rape, human trafficking, gender based violence, child abuse victims, police brutality, as well as communities and victims of social crisis such as food insecurity, and infrastructure decay. When victims of incidents find it difficult to locate Closest Help Point at the times of need, RouteWatche features geographic help points, information listings and data visualization for areas of potential threats on the platform for users’ safety. 

Furthermore, a number of government leaders, business leaders and everyday people need comprehensive data analysis on key social issues and security incidents to plan and take key decisions. Oftentimes, this kind of data is fragmented into bits of news across different channels, but are not analysed into key Reports for understanding trends, mapping out hotspots, and prevention analysis. This problem is solved through RouteWatche Intelligence analysis and reports.

The RouteWatche application provides real-time crowdsourced data for the public and geographic-specific intelligence for people and institutions, covering incidents about domestic abuse, terror attacks, rape, human trafficking, community crises, food insecurity, state of infrastructure and several other cases happening around the society. The app also allows individuals to report events happening around them on the app as well as file personal cases if they are victims. RouteWatche then refers these cases directly to the relevant national or state agency to resolve.

RouteWatche Intelligence products offer institutions, government agencies, NGOs and individuals processed data and insightful Reports needed for sound decision making and planning. The RouteWatche system analyses data from thousands of sources and offers historic data, live data, and predictions about events, incidents, safety, available resources, using artificial intelligence.

The RouteWatche panic alert system is an emergency monitoring system that allows institutions and individuals to get instant alerts about their people, family members and loved ones for quick response during incidents. With this technology, people can easily send notifications and requests for help during emergencies, making it possible for more effective curative measures and faster arrival of support to victims of incidents.

The makeup of RouteWatche’s solutions cuts across technology, social enterprise and for-profit business offerings. Our use cases and verticals allow individuals to stay safe and protect their environment through crowdsourcing data technology; while for government MDAs and NGOs, we assist with data harmonization, API Integration, technical support, and case referral to relevant agencies handling various incidents. Businesses in various sectors take advantage of our data analysis, emergency management solutions, and geographics specific intelligence for their people and institutions. Individuals can use the RouteWatche online platform to file cases with confidence that they will be duly attended to. The entire solution architecture of RouteWatche provides a security and safety platform for the society, while using data and technology in a more productive way.

Our current solution targets the Nigerian market with a total addressable market (TAM) of 80.5 million people and a serviceable addressable market (SAM) of 40 million people. While the TAM can be valued at about $1 billion annually, the SAM can yield up to $500 million annually based on our revenue model and current pricing structure. The people and institutions which our products will serve in the market are underserved with security and safety data solutions. The RouteWatche incidents tracking, reporting and case referrals solution targets victims of human trafficking, gender-based violence, rape, child abuse victims, terror attacks, road accidents, police brutality, as well as communities and victims of social crisis such as food insecurity, and infrastructure decay. It does not only serve the victims but also witnesses, family and friends. A number of people who get involved in incidents of this nature will require information about the nearest help centre. RouteWatche features Closest Help Point listings and data visualization for areas of potential threats on the platform for these users’ safety.

The users of RouteWatche solution and technology can be categorised into three sets. The first is the everyday individual who uses the platform to read live and recent reports about incidents happening around the society. This individual user also uses the platform to report any incident happening around them, and as victims of rape, GBV, assault, they can lodge an anonymous or confidential case filing through the RouteWatche portal which is immediately routed to the relevant government agency for a resolution. The second user category is government agencies. Governments use the platform to access case referrals, live and recent incidents. While they may additionally plug into the RouteWatche API for technical assistance on certain tech-enabled security solutions, government leaders also access report databases and analysis for preventive planning and decision making.

The third user base for RouteWatche solution is businesses/enterprises. They use the platform to access reports, actionable data and intelligence on key issues for geographic market entry planning and decision making.

The RouteWatche team brings together a combined 40 years of security and technological solution experience. Starting with the cofounders, Adebayo Adeleke is a seasoned security expert and a combat veteran of the United States Army with 20 years of service. Adebayo founded RouteWatche Technologies with the vision to use an intelligence gathering application with crowdsourcing features and artificial intelligence capabilities to provide real-time geographic-specific data and alerts to users as they travel across cities. This then helps people to access safety information and warnings about anything that could endanger their lives. His hands-on security experience has helped him provide data and insights on security challenges across Africa. His policy briefs on security and other resources have been featured in London Business School, the African Report, and others. Adebayo currently leads as the CEO and he is a 2x founder with business strategy to lead a successful datatech company. The second co-founder, Sarah George-Ashiru is seasoned operations professional with years of portfolio management experience. She currently works as the Operations Manager for the company.

The team also has a talented Chief Technology Officer, John Popoola. John is an experienced technology and product developer for 10+ years across dynamic industries. 

The RouteWatche internal structure is composed of People, Operations, Sales, Communications, Data/Research and Product Development teams led by very talented and committed individuals who are poised to launch the product for stakeholder impact, growth, revenue, datatech advancement and communal safety.

We have built MVP. 

We have tested with up to 15,000 free opt-in users.

We have partnered with government agencies such as the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) as technical partner for case referrals, reporting and treatment.

Our first reason for applying to SOLVE is to raise our first funding to launch the MVP that has been built, as well as to carry out business development, product advancement, and end-to-end operational execution. Moreover, we believe that SOLVE will be a strategic partner in the area of impact monitoring and evaluation regarding how the RouteWatches datatech solution and platform is functional and useful to the target audience. SOLVE will be able to join in quality control forces with RouteWatche at the level of collecting, using data, and measuring impact. Other areas that RouteWatche would like to work with SOLVE is to leverage the strategic partnership network of SOLVE to find new routes to product development and market entry strategy.

Finally, we believe in the ability to source peer technology development engagement within SOLVE in order to advance the RouteWatche solution to solve more problems and bring more socio-economic  impact in the society. 

RouteWatche’s innovation uses technology to help victims of incidents to find help and safety faster. Victims have access to closest help points wherever they are on the platform, and they are able to trigger instant calls for help during emergencies. The platform also organises crowdsourced data about incidents happening around the country which is useful to relevant agencies and institutions. Governments and other institutions use the RouteWatche incident intelligence products and analysis to plan and prevent recurrence of the incidents while ensuring community engagement in security intelligence for a better society, and socio-economic growth for all.

RouteWatche’s technology can be integrated to other solutions for impact. Our current competitors are government body departments who are currently struggling to effectively harness technology for security and community safety. For example, The Nigeria Security Tracker, N-Alert Mobile App, or the NPF Rescue Me App of the Nigeria Police Force are all great initiatives without effective implementation at the expense of people’s lives when it comes to security reporting, emergency response, being a platform for safety data source, and case filing. RouteWatche is building the infrastructure for government agencies to integrate with, in order for them to provide more effective services. For instance, we currently have a partnership with the Lagos State Domestic Violence Agency where we help them with access to more cases to handle from our platform, and we support them with data and technical support for their job.

RouteWatche capabilities and product offering also uses artificial intelligence and data analytics to offer real-time data and predictive analysis for informed decision making. This changes the security planning, response, and prevention landscape positively. It helps businesses plan their market entry strategy; it helps individuals plan their movement, and helps the government to effectively manage incident response and prevention through adequate, timely, and analysed data.

The RouteWatche’s core solution uncovers the needs of victims of various incidents including kidnapping, child trafficking, gender violence, terrorist attacks etc., By providing a platform for reporting incidents as they happen, victims are able to get justice, organised help, and emergency response faster. This kind of impact can prevent death or years of abuse suffered by a gender-based violence victim. In addition, the RouteWatche platform also features nearest help points and emergency alert system to help victims or concerned reports trigger immediate emergency calls. The impact analysis will be visible when the latest reports of how many gender-based violence cases have been referred and resolved through the platform overtime. 

Furthermore, the RouteWatche solution directly addresses UN Sustainable Development Goals. The goal of Gender Equality is solved when gender-based abuses are reported on the platform, and later resolved through relevant measures. With the tracking of insecurity cases, and providing safe city reports, the goal of Sustainable Cities and Communities is directly impacted and the government is able to use RouteWatche Intelligence to respond, plan and prevent insecurity in communities. This also positively impacts the goal of Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. With the measurement of incident reports and emergency response effectiveness, it will be visible how well the RouteWatche platform has positively impacted issues. In RouteWatche’s ongoing partnerships with government agencies and the provision of data to businesses and institutions, we leverage Partnerships to achieve the important goals. Summarily, RouteWatche capabilities and product offering shows impacts through using crowdsourcing approach, artificial intelligence, and data analytics to offer real-time data, connection to closest help points, predictive analysis for informed decision making, case referrals, community engagement in security intelligence for a better society, and socio-economic growth. These kinds of impact can be measured quantitatively when historical analyses are carried out for incidents.

1. We want to boost the confidence of victims of gender-based violence by 100% which will increase case filings and referral to relevant agencies through the RouteWatche platform by 70% annually. This will cause more awareness on the availability of effective solutions for resolving GBV in the society, thereby reducing the incident and occurrence in the future.

2. With our emergency alert system and predictive analysis solution, we want to reduce response time to terror attacks to maximum 30 minutes in all areas of Nigeria, including hot zones in the North.

3. Through RouteWatche’s support to government agencies, we hope to be the strategic partner that helps them to be more effective in case management. We will be supporting and measuring the key performance indicators of security agencies, human right agencies, gender-based offence management agencies in Nigeria year-on-year.

The technology that powers RouteWatche falls within the categories of Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, Behavioural Technology, Big Data, Crowd Sourced Service / Social Networks, GIS and Geospatial Technology, Internet of Things, Software and Mobile Applications. We built a social app platform that enables individuals to share live reports of incidents happening around them and to them, while also leveraging social listening technology to crowdsource incident data from across numerous sources into big data. With this data in place, our system is able to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyse the businesses and other institutions becoming highly leveraged with their ability to use the platform for specificpurposes.

35 staff - FULL TIME

We have been working on the solution for 2 years now, since 2022.

We approach recruitment anchored on gender equity. We have a team that comprises 40% female and 60% male. In management, we have 60% female and 40% male. We constantly ensure that team members irrespective of their grade are highly engaged in key tasks to offer them fulfilment in job tasks.

RouteWatche’s business model offers B2C, B2B, and B2G offerings. The total addressable market of the B2C is: 80.5 million users with $1.1 billion/year value, and a Serviceable addressable market: 40 million users with $500 million/year value. Users including businesses will use the RouteWatche platform at Freemium, but access advanced features and data reports on paid subscription models. Government agencies have access to purchase RouteWatche’s API to optimize their technology for incident reports, database management and response management.

Our comprehensive revenue models are platform subscription, sale of data reports, API services, and security consultancy services.

The thoughts around the RouteWatche business model revolves around the three categories of users on the RouteWatche platform. The first is the everyday individual who uses the platform to read live and recent reports about incidents happening around the society. This individual user also uses the platform to report any incident happening around them, and as victims of rape, GBV, assault, they can lodge an anonymous case filing through the RouteWatche portal which is immediately routed to the relevant government agency to treat. This individual user operates on Freemium, but accesses advanced features on the platform using paid subscription.

The second user is Government agencies. Government agencies use the platform to access case referrals, live and recent incidents. They also access report databases and analysis for planning and decision making. In addition, government agencies prefer a technology partner, and RouteWatche will render API and technology support at a fee to government and other institutions.

The third user category is businesses/enterprises. They use the platform to purchase reports, actionable data and intelligence on key issues for planning and decision making.

We operate a social enterprise technology business. However, we believe that a number of our solutions are not just valuable but also exchangeable to businesses, institutions, and certain individuals at a fee.

Till date, we have operated on self-funding to the tune of US$100,000 plus. We have been able to build and test our MVP at freemium, and now we are ready to fully launch to the market. We are currently seeking a combined US$500,000 funding in grant (or mixed funding type) to our full scale launch milestones. This money will help us launch brand and product awareness campaigns, create digital community police architecture, sync national security infrastructure, optimize product development, launch expanded partnerships, business development, hire staff and increase platform users to 100,000 onboarding. Our financial projections show positive net income yearly. Financial Projections (table and graph)

2024

2025

2026

2027

2028

REVENUE ($)

377,883

4,563,933

34,575,255

69,150,510

103,725,765

COGs ($)

278,133

305,946

351,838

387,022

425,724

EBIT ($)

99,750

4,257,987

34,223,416

68,763,487

103,300,040

NET INCOME 

74,812

3,193,490

25,667,562

51,572,615

77,475,030

We intend to launch large-scale marketing to drive awareness to the RouteWacthe platform to become a veritable source of security data and safety solutions in the country of operation. We will also continually upgrade our data products offering to command higher value to investors, governments, businesses and individuals looking for Intelligence for decision making and advisory.

By positioning ourselves well, we will charge for our high-value products and services and thereby remain sustainable, while also impacting the society positively.