Lara

Lara (Lara.ng) is a Nigerian public transit intelligence service that provides step-by-step directions and fare estimates for journeys within Lagos and, per later coverage, Abuja. Users enter a query in natural language — in English or Nigerian Pidgin — in the form of an origin and destination (for example "Ikeja to Obalende" or "from Lekki to VI"), and the service returns route options across the transport modes commonly used in the city: danfo, BRT, korope, keke, okada, ferry, train and Lagbus. The product has been described as a text-based conversational assistant for public transportation with a messaging-app-style interface, and is built on Google's progressive web app platform so it remains light and usable on slow networks.

The service was positioned as filling a gap left by general-purpose mapping products, which do not model Lagos's informal transport network or its local fares. Beyond routing, the company has emphasised the proprietary mobility dataset it accumulates: how frequently users travel particular routes, average spend, most-visited places, and seasonal route patterns, which it has framed as inputs for city planning insight and potential advertising or commercial applications. The current web product also offers free account creation to save routes, receive personalised suggestions and access premium features, and collects structured user feedback on route accuracy.

Founding story

According to press coverage, the effort traces back to 2012, when Samuel Odeloye had a conversation on a New York–London flight about navigating London and contrasted the information available there with the difficulty of getting around Lagos, where he grew up. In 2013 he partnered with Opeoluwa Bada, who joined as CTO and left the company in 2015 for personal reasons, and with software engineer Nnamdi Nwanze, whom he met at NYSC camp, to create MyRP, a mobility product offering driving and public transit directions in Lagos. The team spent the following period gathering and structuring data on transit routes, vehicle types, local rates and bus stops. MyRP launched in 2014 and reached roughly 12,000 social media followers and 1,500 web app signups, but did not find a workable business model and was phased out by the end of 2016. Armed with the MyRP dataset, Odeloye, Nwanze and new co-founder Ladi Ojora launched Lara.ng in 2017.

Business model

The service is offered to commuters as a free web and app product; a sign-up flow references saved routes, personalised suggestions and premium features. The company has historically struggled to settle on monetisation — an earlier predecessor product experimented with charging users for directions — and has said its accumulated mobility, city-planning and lifestyle datasets present advertising and other commercial opportunities it hoped to pursue.

Coverage from 2018 indicates the company was not monetising directly at that point and was operating largely self-funded, while identifying advertising and data-driven opportunities arising from its proprietary usage dataset as potential future revenue. The current site references premium features tied to user accounts.

Traction

As of November 2018 the company reported 100,000 users, approximately 12,000 monthly active users, 65% of daily active users returning, 45–47% returning weekly, data coverage across four cities and over 600,000 queries processed to date. A 2019 review reported roughly 100,000 users reached in under two years.

Latest developments

The Lara.ng web product remains live, covering danfo, BRT, korope, keke, okada, ferry, train and Lagbus, with natural-language and Pidgin query support, route feedback collection, and free account registration tied to saved routes and premium features. The most recent dated developments in available coverage are a 2019 Facebook startup programme grant and a July 2019 arrangement with Google Nigeria to add danfo-mode transit information to Google Maps.