A West Allis-based startup recently launched a platform they say will help small businesses sell and deliver their items during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dityer, a smartphone app created by Okayge Inc., serves as both a digital marketplace where small businesses can sell their goods to customers, and a delivery service using independent drivers to ship those goods around Milwaukee in the same day.
Ruhongeka Ntabala, the CEO and founder of Okayge Inc., thought of the idea for Dityer after noticing how often his mother had to use public transportation to buy items at stores. In 2018 as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he started designing the platform.
Ntabala, who graduated from UWM this past May and is originally from Central Africa, bootstrapped the launch of the platform, he said. He runs the business with Rafi Rahmani, whom he met at UWM in an economics class.
“I told him about this idea and I started working on it, and then two years in once the idea was done, I called him and I said, 'Now with the coronavirus and all these stores are closing, maybe we can help the local economy. Why don’t you join the team?'”
Rahmani now serves as the company’s business development and partnership manager.
“We're putting the technology directly into the retailers’ hands, which presents a really great opportunity for not only national chains, but also small businesses and locally owned business and regional chains that can leverage the technology,” Rahmani said.
Through the app, consumers can shop and purchase items in a "virtual mall." Once an item is purchased, a Dityer driver goes to the store, picks up the package, and delivers it to the consumer that day. The app communicates with a dashboard inside of a store, which allows store operators to either accept or reject orders and call for a driver.
Similar to Uber or Lyft, Dityer’s drivers use their own vehicles to transport products. Dityer takes a small percentage of the delivery fee. The goods are delivered within a one- and five-mile radius in Milwaukee.
So far, Dityer has 120 drivers in its delivery network, Ntabala said. Among the users of the platform is an art store and jewelry store at Mayfair mall in Wauwatosa, he said.
Long term, the plan is to handle shipping logistics for companies, Rahmani said. The two entrepreneurs are also eyeing an expansion into Chicago and Madison for Dityer later this year.
