The short version

Halen is building a rideshare platform around the drivers who depend on rideshare for their livelihood.

Traditional rideshare platforms generally earn more from a driver as that driver completes more trips. Halen changes that relationship: drivers pay a flat $199 weekly subscription, Halen takes no percentage commission, and drivers retain 100% of their fares before payment-processing charges and their separate insurance contribution.

Riders pay a flat $3.95 booking fee per completed trip, and Halen’s pricing model does not rely on surge pricing.

We are raising $1.5 million through a post-money SAFE with an $18 million valuation cap to complete regulatory approval, launch Halen’s Philadelphia pilot, validate driver conversion and retention, and establish the operating playbook for our next market.

The problem: the highest-volume drivers pay the most

Percentage commissions create a fundamental conflict between rideshare platforms and full-time drivers.

As a driver works more hours and completes more trips, the platform collects more from that driver—even though the cost of providing the underlying technology does not necessarily increase at the same rate.

This makes the traditional commission model particularly expensive for full-time and other high-volume drivers. These drivers also absorb their own vehicle, fuel or charging, maintenance, insurance, and tax expenses.

Halen is being built specifically for this operator-class driver: the driver who treats rideshare as a business rather than an occasional side gig.

The solution: replace the percentage commission with a subscription

Halen’s model is designed to make platform costs more predictable:

1. $199 weekly driver subscription
2. $88 weekly driver insurance contribution
3. No percentage commission charged by Halen
4. $3.95 booking fee paid by the rider
5. No surge-pricing model

Drivers retain the fare, less applicable payment-processing charges. Subscription, insurance, vehicle expenses, and taxes remain the driver’s responsibility unless otherwise covered by a specific pilot arrangement.

Illustrative driver scenario

The following example is a management illustration—not a guarantee of driver earnings.

A driver completing approximately 85 trips and generating $1,628 in weekly fares would have:

1. $1,628 in fares
2. Less the $199 Halen subscription
3. Less the $88 insurance contribution
4. Approximately $1,341 remaining before payment-processing charges, vehicle expenses, and taxes

The benefit of the model increases with volume because the subscription does not rise as the driver completes more trips.

Actual results will depend on trip demand, fares, hours worked, location, operating expenses, insurance costs, and driver performance.

Drivers are already choosing subscription alternatives

Empower reports that drivers using its platform have completed more than 10 million rides—evidence that subscription-based rideshare can attract real activity.

Halen’s opportunity is to pair that interest with a launch built around required operating approvals, commercial insurance, and local driver support. Our Philadelphia pilot will test whether drivers choose—and stay with—Halen at our subscription price.

How Halen makes money

Halen is designed around two platform-revenue streams:

Driver subscriptions

1. Active independent drivers pay $199 per week for access to the platform.
2. At 500 active subscribed drivers, the subscription component alone would represent an annualized revenue run rate of approximately:
3. 500 drivers × $199 × 52 weeks = $5.17 million
4. This calculation assumes all 500 drivers remain active and paying for the full annualized period. It is a run-rate calculation—not a forecast of recognized first-year revenue.

Rider booking fees

Riders pay a flat $3.95 booking fee per completed trip.

This revenue increases with actual trip volume and will be reported separately from subscription revenue as Halen collects operating data from the Philadelphia pilot.

The $88 weekly driver insurance contribution is intended to help support commercial insurance costs and is not presented here as core platform revenue.

Traction before launch

As of September 2026, Halen has:

1. 5,007 drivers on its pre-launch waitlist
2. Approximately 80% of waitlisted drivers located within the Philadelphia MSA
3. Approximately 62% reporting that they drive 40 or more hours per week
4. Approximately 800 prospective riders
5. Acquired this pre-launch interest with no paid advertising
6. Built and internally QA-tested its rideshare and package-delivery MVP
7. Developed iOS and Android applications
8. Secured approximately $200,000 in cloud credits

Waitlist registrations represent expressions of interest—not active drivers, completed rides, customers, or revenue. Halen’s initial management conversion target is approximately 10% of the driver waitlist, but actual conversion may be materially higher or lower.

Solving the rideshare cold-start problem

Every new marketplace faces the same challenge: riders need available drivers, and drivers need sufficient rider demand.

Halen’s Philadelphia launch is designed to address this through a controlled operating sequence.

Stage 1: Regulatory and operational readiness

Halen will complete the applicable Philadelphia regulatory, insurance, safety, driver-onboarding, and operating requirements before providing commercial rides.

Stage 2: Independent-driver expansion

Following regulatory approval and controlled testing, Halen plans to onboard qualified independent drivers in cohorts, measure retention and trip activity, and work toward approximately 500 active Philadelphia drivers.

This phased launch is intended to protect service quality while Halen tests marketplace liquidity, driver economics, rider acquisition, insurance costs, and operational performance.

A compliance-first launch

A transportation application is not automatically a licensed transportation company.

Halen’s Philadelphia operations require approval from the Philadelphia Parking Authority before commercial TNC service begins. Separate Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission authority would be required for intrastate operations outside Philadelphia.

Halen has:

1. Retained transportation regulatory counsel
2. Begun preparing the applicable regulatory filings
3. Engaged a commercial-insurance broker
4. Designed driver onboarding around background-check, vehicle, insurance, and safety requirements
5. Budgeted specifically for regulatory filings and insurance deposits

Licensing remains subject to regulator review, and Halen cannot guarantee when approval will be granted.

Market opportunity

Halen sizes its initial market around high-volume U.S. drivers who are most likely to benefit from subscription pricing.

Management estimates that approximately 450,000 to 600,000 U.S. drivers fit this broader operator-class profile.

At Halen’s current subscription price:

1. 450,000 × $199 × 52 weeks = approximately $4.7 billion
2. 600,000 × $199 × 52 weeks = approximately $6.2 billion

This represents Halen’s estimated annual U.S. driver-subscription opportunity. It excludes rider booking-fee revenue.

Within Halen’s initial target metropolitan markets, management estimates a serviceable population of approximately 85,000 to 145,000 high-volume drivers, representing approximately $880 million to $1.5 billion in potential annual subscription revenue.

These figures are management estimates, not current revenue or guaranteed future market capture. They depend on Halen’s definition of an operator-class driver, pricing, adoption, retention, competition, and regulatory access.

Why the model may be defensible

Halen’s defensibility does not depend on a single feature or regulatory filing. It is intended to develop through several reinforcing advantages:

1. Driver economics: A fixed subscription can become more attractive as a driver’s trip volume increases.
2. Focused supply: Halen is building specifically for full-time and other high-volume drivers rather than attempting to serve every driver equally.
3. Market density: The Philadelphia waitlist gives Halen a pre-launch supply base from which to recruit qualified drivers.
4. Compliance infrastructure: Regulatory filings, insurance, safety systems, and operating procedures require capital, expertise, and execution.
5. Controlled pilot data: Halen plans to collect real operating data on driver utilization, rider demand, vehicle performance, insurance, and retention.
6. Local operating teams: Halen’s planned metropolitan structure provides local driver and rider support.
7. Repeatable expansion: The Philadelphia pilot is intended to become the operating blueprint for future corporate-owned and franchised markets.

Large incumbents could respond with incentives, pricing changes, or competing features. Halen’s opportunity is to demonstrate that its complete operating model—not merely its application—produces a better relationship among drivers, riders, and the platform.

Founder-market fit

Halen was founded by Edward Mbeche, a transportation entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in transportation and hospitality.

Edward spent 12 years operating a licensed limousine company serving clients connected to the White House, Pentagon, and U.S. Senate. After rideshare platforms disrupted the limousine industry, he spent approximately six years driving for Uber and Lyft to understand the model directly.

Halen grew from that experience: the belief that the drivers producing the most value should have a more predictable relationship with the platform they power.

The Philadelphia-first expansion strategy

Philadelphia is not simply Halen’s first launch city. It is intended to become the operating blueprint for expansion.

The first pilot will test:

1. Driver recruitment and conversion
2. Rider acquisition
3. Driver and rider retention
4. Trip frequency
5. Response and wait times
6. Insurance costs
7. Support requirements
8. Local-market staffing
9. Subscription retention
10. Contribution economics

Once those assumptions are validated, Halen plans to apply the resulting playbook to additional metropolitan markets.

The Philadelphia pilot will initially be operated as a corporate-owned market. The franchise model is a future expansion strategy and is not required for the Philadelphia launch.

The raise

Halen is raising $1.5 million through a post-money SAFE with an $18 million valuation cap.

Planned use of proceeds

1. Team and key operating hires — 27% / $405,000
2. Regulatory, legal, and franchise architecture — 15% / $225,000
3. Philadelphia pilot growth and driver acquisition — 13% / $195,000
4. Commercial-insurance deposit — 10% / $150,000
5. Cloud infrastructure and product development — 7% / $105,000
6. Working capital and execution reserve — 28% / $420,000

The execution reserve is intended to address regulatory timing, insurance requirements, operating variability, and other pre-revenue contingencies.

What this round is intended to accomplish

By the end of the initial 12-month execution period, Halen intends to have:

1. Obtained the required Philadelphia TNC operating authority
2. Launched a controlled Philadelphia rideshare pilot
3. Progressed toward approximately 500 active independent drivers
4. Established real driver-conversion and subscription-retention data
5. Validated rider demand and marketplace liquidity
6. Measured actual insurance and support costs
7. Established contribution economics using live operating results
8. Completed a documented operating playbook for the next metropolitan market

These are management objectives, not guaranteed outcomes.

The risks—stated plainly

Investing in Halen is highly speculative and involves substantial risk.

Regulatory risk

Halen cannot provide commercial rides in Philadelphia until the required authority is issued. Approval timing and regulatory requirements are outside Halen’s control.

Pre-revenue risk

Halen has not yet generated commercial rideshare revenue. Its pricing, retention, demand, and operating assumptions have not been proven in live commercial operation.

Waitlist-conversion risk

Waitlist registrations indicate interest but do not guarantee that drivers will complete onboarding, subscribe, or remain active.

Marketplace-liquidity risk

Halen must establish adequate driver availability and rider demand at the same time. Failure on either side could result in long wait times, low driver utilization, or weak retention.

Insurance risk

Commercial rideshare insurance may cost more than projected, require additional deposits, or affect Halen’s ability to achieve its expected contribution economics.

Competition risk

Uber, Lyft, and other platforms have significantly greater capital, brand recognition, rider demand, and operating scale. They may respond with driver incentives, rider promotions, pricing changes, or new products.

Execution risk

Halen must coordinate regulatory approval, technology, insurance, driver onboarding, rider acquisition, customer support, and local operations. Delays in one area may delay the entire launch.

Financing and liquidity risk

A SAFE is not a loan, does not pay interest, and may never convert into equity with meaningful value. Investors should be prepared for the possibility of losing their entire investment.

An autonomous future with drivers as owners

Halen is monitoring autonomous technology and exploring a path for drivers to become vehicle owners and operators.

1. Technology partners: Seek manufacturer and autonomous-technology partnerships that enable individual ownership or leasing and operation on Halen.
2. Driver ownership: Eligible owners (driver) could register up to three vehicles, managing financing, insurance, maintenance, cleaning, and charging.
3. Halen’s role: Connect those vehicles with riders through a subscription platform, without purchasing a large company-owned fleet.

The goal: preserve earning opportunities for drivers while limiting Halen’s fleet capital requirements.

Proposed strategy, subject to partner access, regulatory approval, and viable owner economics.

One essential distinction: ownership creates an earning opportunity; it does not guarantee preserved income. The model must leave owners a worthwhile return after vehicle costs, technology fees, and downtime. That is the test investors will expect Halen to address.

Why invest in Halen

Halen is not asking investors to assume that the model has already been proven.

This round is designed to produce that proof.

Halen enters the Philadelphia pilot with:

1. A founder with more than 25 years of transportation experience
2. A completed mobile-platform foundation
3. 5,007 prospective drivers
4. Approximately 800 prospective riders
5. A clearly defined driver segment
6. A subscription-based economic model
7. A compliance-first operating strategy
8. A measurable 12-month execution plan

The investment thesis is straightforward:

If Halen can convert its Philadelphia waitlist, retain high-volume drivers, attract repeat riders, obtain the necessary regulatory authority, and validate its economics, it will have a repeatable model for entering additional metropolitan markets.

We are building Halen for the drivers who treat transportation as their profession—and for riders who want transparent prices without surge pricing.

Built for the Rest of Us.