DeshRide

The question

Can intercity carpooling work in Bangladesh — drivers selling the seats on trips they're already making — with payments both sides can trust?

A Poparide-style carpooling platform for all of Bangladesh. Drivers post trips they're already making; travellers book the empty seats. Payments sit in escrow via bKash, Nagad, or card until the trip completes, designed around Bangladesh Bank's digital-commerce rules. Ships as an Android app with automated APK builds.

How it works

1. 01

   One app, both roles: a driver posts a trip with any pickup and drop-off in the country — all 64 districts, or a pin dropped straight on the map.

2. 02

   Travellers request the empty seats; the driver approves who rides.

3. 03

   The fare is collected via bKash, Nagad or card when the driver accepts, held, and released to the driver only after the trip completes — the pattern Bangladesh Bank's Digital Commerce rules already mandate.

4. 04

   A local-first prototype: the whole loop — post → search → request → accept into escrow → complete → release — works end to end, with one storage module as the seam for a future backend.

5. 05

   The same codebase ships as an Android app through Capacitor; CI builds a debug APK on every push.

6. 06

   Launch research to match: regulation (BRTA, company setup, VAT, PDPO 2025), market and unit economics, Play Store and payment rails, and a go/no-go verdict with a phased roadmap.

Results

Known limits

• —Still a local-first prototype: trips and bookings live on the device until a backend replaces the storage seam.