“I did not want to witness the rise of Africa; I wanted to be part of it. Twelve years after living on the East Coast of the US (New York & Boston) I moved to Benin in February 2016”, Jean Philippe Houssou Founder Triton.
I have a Master of Business Administration and thanks to my experience in the investment banking sector in New York, I was able to provide assets/risk management services to English speaking people willing to invest in the French speaking countries of West Africa.
I was truly enjoying my new life in Cotonou the biggest city of Benin except that washing my car whenever I wanted was a challenge. At every car wash center, I was asked to either wait or to leave the vehicle and come back. None of these options were viable for me because time was the last thing I had to spare.
I asked myself why nobody comes to my apartment or my office to wash my car whenever I wanted?
From that moment, I decided to look for solutions and Triton came to life…
The Triton is a tricycle that comes to you anywhere and anytime to wash your car. It employs 2 persons that vacuum the interior of your car and wash the exterior with water and biodegradable soap.
No need to go to any car wash center nor wait your turn to get your car washed. For less than 2 US Dollars and without leaving your office or house, your car is washed. Just call or WhatsApp us and within 30 minutes a team will come to you. You save both time and money.
In Cotonou people tend to think that water washes cars and they use around 100 liters to do the job. At Triton, we wash a car with less than 30 liters and we can wash up to 50 cars at once before refilling our water tank.
Most vacuums have a power consumption of 1,500 watts and they are used for at least 15 minutes to clean the interior of a car. That is 0.4 kW/h of energy consumed per car. Our vacuums are powered with 75 watts and use only 0.02kW/h to clean a car.
We have not only reduced by 3 the amount of water we used to wash any car in Cotonou but we have also reduced by 16 the amount of energy consumed to vacuum a car. Last but not least, our vacuums are not powered through the grid. In fact, it is powered through a battery that get recharged every time the tricycle moves around….
We have been in business for 3 months and we have washed more than 800 cars while improving income and working conditions for the 15-people working with us. Those washing cars are not too educated and we invest heavily in their personal development. We work on improving their self-knowledge, awareness and potential while teaching them new skills that can help them improve their social abilities.
What make us special at Triton is that more that 60 percent of our people are under 28 and none of us has 35 years old. This represents a challenge and an opportunity because we need to ensure that our people have access to training and are given opportunity to fully realize their capabilities.
We want to create more than 240 direct jobs and provide more that 20,000 car wash services to the people of Cotonou. Employment is a key pillar of development for any nation and at Triton, we have the opportunity to drive an incredible job growth in Cotonou and other big cities of Africa.
Going one step further, we want to use innovative technologies to improve our operational efficiency and effectiveness while enhancing the customers experience.
At Triton, we want to make a difference and become a reference point for business innovation in Africa.
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