Tikwere

**Elevator Pitch** Tikwere is an AI powered agentic bus booking platform helping University students quickly find, book, and manage secure bus trips with ease.

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Inspiration

As students at the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) living in Lilongwe, we experienced firsthand how difficult traveling between campus and home could be, especially during weekends, holidays, and semester breaks. Students often faced crowded bus depots, uncertain departure schedules, limited seat availability, and cash-based ticketing. During peak periods, securing a seat could become stressful, and some students risked being stranded without reliable transport.

We realized that while students use digital platforms to manage their academic and personal lives, campus transportation remained largely offline and inefficient. We saw an opportunity to solve a real problem that students experienced repeatedly.

That idea became Tikwere, meaning “Let’s Board.” Our goal was simple: transform the stressful process of finding and booking student transportation into a safe, reliable, and convenient digital experience.

What It Does

Tikwere is a student-focused bus booking platform designed to simplify travel for CUNIMA students traveling between Lilongwe and campus.

AI Echo Agent

AI Echo is an intelligent travel agent built into Tikwere. Instead of navigating multiple screens, students can interact with the agent naturally to receive booking assistance, manage travel details, adjust schedules, and update selected profile information.

Digital Ticketing & Verification

Tikwere allows students to reserve seats digitally and receive electronic tickets that can be scanned or verified when boarding. This reduces dependence on physical tickets, cash transactions, and long queues at bus stations.

Mobile-Friendly Checkout

The platform is designed around payment methods familiar to Malawian students, making it easier to complete bookings through local mobile payment channels and secure a seat before traveling.

How We Built It

We designed Tikwere around a modern web architecture focused on speed, simplicity, reliability, and scalability.

Frontend & Web Core: Built with React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, providing a responsive interface that works across smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Backend & Database: Powered by PostgreSQL and Supabase, enabling reliable management of student accounts, bookings, seat allocations, payment records, and changing booking states.

AI Integration: AI Echo is powered by Gemini model APIs through Google AI Studio, enabling conversational interactions and intelligent assistance throughout the booking experience.

Challenges We Faced

One of our biggest technical challenges was connecting conversational AI to real transactional operations. AI Echo needed to understand natural-language requests while ensuring that actions such as selecting a seat, changing a trip, or updating information were executed accurately without creating incorrect database transactions.

We also faced operational challenges, particularly bus availability. During peak travel periods, demand could exceed the number of available buses, making it difficult to accommodate every student who wanted to travel.

Another challenge was payment verification. Because payment confirmation relied heavily on submitted payment screenshots, we had to develop a process for verifying transactions while maintaining a smooth booking experience for students.

These challenges taught us that building a successful platform requires more than good software. It also requires strong operational partnerships, reliable processes, and an understanding of the environment in which the technology will be used.

Accomplishments We Are Proud Of

Tikwere demonstrated that a localized digital solution can create meaningful value for students and transport operators.

MWK 49 million+ ($ 20 000) in booking revenue facilitated within three months. 465 students registered and used the platform. Reservations successfully managed across 15 full buses. Created a simpler and more convenient alternative to traditional student bus booking. Demonstrated the potential of AI-assisted booking for everyday transportation services.

More importantly, we validated the idea that students are willing to adopt digital transportation services when the platform directly solves a problem they experience in their everyday lives.

What We Learned Conversational UX Can Reduce Friction

AI Echo showed us that conversational interfaces can make digital services easier to use, particularly for users who may find traditional multi-step forms confusing or time-consuming.

Community Trust Is Essential

Technology alone does not create adoption. Students need to trust the platform, the transport operators, and the payment process. Solving a genuine community problem helped us build that trust and demonstrate tangible value.

Software and Operations Must Grow Together

Our experience with limited bus availability showed us that scaling a transportation platform requires both technological infrastructure and strong relationships with transport providers.

What's Next for Tikwere Multi-Campus Expansion

We plan to expand Tikwere beyond CUNIMA to major universities across Malawi, including UNIMA, MUST, and MZUNI. Our long-term goal is to create a connected digital transportation network for university students across the country.

Dedicated Transport Partnerships

We aim to establish long-term partnerships with reliable bus operators. These partnerships will help guarantee vehicle availability, improve scheduling, secure student-friendly fares, and reduce seat shortages during peak travel periods.

Agentic AI & Personalization

The next generation of AI Echo will evolve from a conversational assistant into a more capable agentic travel assistant. Built with Google Cloud and Gemini model APIs, it could eventually support thousands of simultaneous student interactions, remember travel preferences, recommend suitable departure times, and assist with group bookings.

With appropriate user consent and privacy controls, AI Echo could also help students coordinate travel around important dates such as classes, examinations, and semester breaks.

Nationwide Travel Infrastructure

Our long-term vision is to expand beyond university transportation and support public intercity routes across Malawi. This would transform Tikwere from a student-focused booking service into a broader digital travel infrastructure platform.

B2B Booking Platform

We also plan to provide independent bus companies with the tools to create, host, and manage their own digital booking platforms using Tikwere's technology.

This would allow transport operators to benefit from digital ticketing, online seat management, payment workflows, and booking infrastructure without having to build an entire system from scratch.

Our Vision

Tikwere started with a simple student problem: getting home should not be stressful.

What began as a solution for students traveling between CUNIMA and Lilongwe has the potential to become much bigger a digital transportation ecosystem connecting students, passengers, and bus operators across Malawi.

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