Cavago Founder Tauseef Qadri
Tauseef Qadri has been an avid horse-rider since early childhood.
Born to a Pakistani father and an Indian mother, Qadri spent his formative years in Saudi Arabia, where he used to ride horses at the Military Equestrian Centre in Tabuk.
Later, Qadri went to a boarding school in Warwick in the UK, a country famous for horse-riding. A passionate Qadri travelled throughout the country in search of horses but the exploration proved to be quite challenging, as Google Maps didn’t exist back then.
“However, I found wonderful horse properties all over the UK,” he recalls. “Later, I returned to the Middle East and experienced horses in every corner of the region. I was also fortunate to land a job in a horse company in Dubai. I also travelled extensively and visited different horse properties in the US, South Africa, Spain and Portugal,” says Qadri.
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This experience helped Qadri — who holds an MSc in Sustainable Development from the University of London and later went to pursue a course in Executive Education, Business Strategy and Artificial Intelligence at MIT — to learn a lot about the horse industry and came in handy when he started Cavago.
Headquartered in Singapore, Cavago is a tech company for people who love horses. In boarder terms, Cavago is a booking platform built to bridge the gaps in the equestrian community by unearthing hidden gems and bringing them together on a single, digital platform.
“It is the product of a desire to share the best that the equestrian service world has to offer,” Qadri tells e27. “With more than 500 breeds of horses and literally millions of horses and horse people, Cavago is a celebration of horse cultures around the world.”
Put differently, Cavago is where hosts can offer their equine and equestrian offerings — from basic riding lessons, horse lease, clinics, to fully-fledged riding holidays to users/riders/guests. The app unites a global community of horse lovers and equestrian properties, clubs and hotels with horses.
“Visualise us as an Airbnb.com or a Booking.com for horse riders, where hosts can offer their equine and equestrian offerings and users/guests can search, compare and book online,” explains Qadri. “We follow a similar concept and a business model.”
The founder says Cavago takes great care in curating and selecting its hosts, who are both rich in their experience and diverse in reach. Some of the world’s most prestigious and luxurious equestrian properties, destinations and facilities are featured on the app.
“Many of these properties are the ones that I have either personally visited in the past or been recommended by experts. We also have passionate Cavago Ambassadors such as Rebecca Walters, who is a Champion Female Polo Player based in the UK,” he replies on being asked about the curation process.
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Some of the renowned properties available on the app are Yeguada Cartuja, where horse lovers can experience the birthplace of the iconic Andalusian Horse Breed at a Monastery dating back to 1475 Jerez, Spain; and Al Jiyad (Dubai), where riders can experience authentic desert heritage mounted on famous Arabian horses and enjoy horse riding experiences.
Elite, Olympic-level coaching and equestrian clinics in places like Monte Velho are also added to the platform. This is where the current Portuguese national horse and riders are based, poised to represent their country in the Olympics.
“Similarly, one can learn specialised Show Jumping at elite facilities such as PHR Equestrian with Grand Prix riders and horses in Madrid or Monterosato, where an aspiring equestrian can combine it with a holiday in Fermo, Italy. These facilities are also listed on Cavago,” he says.
A massive industry
Qadri estimates that the annual economic impact of the Global Equine Industry is significant, involving some US$300 billion and 1.6 million full-time jobs, with a GDP revenue of over US$100 billion in North America, which has the most number of horses with over nine million.
In America, the Equine industry has a greater economic impact than motion pictures, he says.
In the UK, there are 374,000 horse-owning households. The industry contributes more money to the UK economy — and has more participants — than rugby, fishing, or cricket, and the sector employs more people than agriculture. Of the 2.1 million regular riders in the UK, 84,000 have taken a riding holiday in 2017.
“There are 27 million people in Britain with an interest in the equestrian industry. There are five million British households with at least one ex-rider,” he estimates.
When it comes to the eastern part of the globe, China is a prominent market, where horse clubs have been growing at more than 1,500 per cent for the last seven years.
According to Research International, there are currently more than 400,000 amateur riders and nine million horses in China. Investments in the country’s equine industry grow at 15-20 per cent every year.
According to statistics from the Beijing Equestrian Association, there are over 500 equestrian clubs in China, of which about 200 are located in Beijing. Over recent years, 10 new equestrian clubs are being established annually in the capital city alone.
In Southeast Asia, the sports item is slowly picking up, thanks partly to the massive growth in China.
Digitalisation a challenge
“I often say that horse businesses are very good at working ‘in’ the business rather than ‘on’ the business. What I mean is that they have become very good at managing the horses and their performance. However, in an age of digitalisation, they lag behind,” he points out.
The tech industry hasn’t given much attention to the horse world. Plus, there is reticence in the equestrian industry to engage technology firms. He feels that the horse world needs to embrace it, particularly because their consumers, horse lovers in many cases are evolving with the trends and hence tech-savvy, he maintains.
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In its early days, Cavago raised a round of funding from angels to develop tech, mostly focused on host engagement, scaling and marketing.
Qadri — who has studied, travelled and worked in different industries, such as sustainability, AI and foodtech, in different parts of the world — has gained rich experience, which is helped him build a sustainable Cavago, he claims.
“Sustainability allows me to explore how we can ignite unique horse experiences from their local, often rural contexts. It also brings me closer to an animal and encourages empathy with the natural world,” he says.
“Horses evoke a passion and a sense of wonder about the deeply interconnected world we share with other living creatures. From a sustainability stand-point, igniting livelihoods associated with horses in a circular and sometimes localised economy has great potential,” he adds.
Artificial Intelligence is interesting because he sees it as an extension to his Data Science-based Management Sciences degree. “It allows me to explore how tech can really benefit horse business. It also keeps me informed of trends that we could apply to the horse world. Working at Yum! Brands was incredibly helpful; I learnt a lot about scaling and igniting people capability to fuel great results,” he concludes.
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Image Credit: Cavago
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