I was reading an article yesterday on Bloomberg.com about how Kenyans are getting swindled by the loans apps and was shocked to realize that the top loan app, Tala (mkopo rahisi) was founded in silicon valley and was even funded by Chris Sacca one of the billionaires who features in some shark tank episodes. Branch is also silicon valley while Okash is associated with the opera browser company based in Scandinavia…
Kenya has the one of the largest tech and finance talent pools and also a lot of wealthy people who can definitely afford to fund such apps… I know some will say these apps use sophisticated credit rating algorithms which Kenyans cant manage but I would disagree. With access to the mpesa messages on the borrower’s devices, you should be able to come up with a simple algorithm to rate them… also considering how high the interest rates are, you can just lend to everyone and still make an profit despite the defaulters.
The same problem was witnessed in the taxi apps (even little cab was founded by an indian immigrant), the ecommerce websites like jumia, and I predict the same will be applied to swvvl and future matatu apps.
At that rate, we will be losing a lot billions to foreigners… we need to wake up and keep some of these profits within the country…
Funding. That’s why. Which Kenyan birrionea will part with 10Million USD for an idea that sounds crazy. Circa 2010-2102 if you told guys to invest money in your idea of lending to the masses without paperwork they’d rush you to Mathare and leave you there.
Those apps are a security threat to our country. Why use 20 billion to lend to poor people 2000 bob each? Capital should be put into more meaningful projects.
20 billion can build 15 factories each employing 200 kenyans directly.
Ata ivo kenya ni nyumba ya malaya, mtu yyote aeza ingia wakati wowote. Juzi tu tumeona wachina wakipika busaa pale athi river.
As someone who’s been in tech for so long and have worked with some these so called Kenyan tech gurus, I’d say our biggest problem is honesty.
Investor akiweka pesa inakulwa. You cannot trust a Kenyan bonobo with 5 billion. They’ll start defrauding their own company and buy plots waki jenga flats.
I’ve seen it happen.
Funding is the biggest challenge. That is why most Kenyan founders nowadays look for a white cofounder.
Almost all successful Kenyan startups are led by whites e.g.
This site with the “504” errors. Can you imagine if it was a millionaire dollar site that clients, customers etc depended on and were unable to access?
Need I say more. @administrator na turedio @Electronics4u mnasikia? Bure kabisa.
The africastalking guy gets along very well with white investors because he has an engineering degree from MIT and had worked for investment banks in the US. He is technically a white man in their eyes. The same with most other local tech billionaires like Ayisi Makatiani and Mucheru (CS)
The jambopay guys went full blown corrupt to win tenders and now they are getting haunted by it…
I don’t know the story of pesapal but I would not be surprised if it’s one of the above cases.
I would say the most successful real Kenyan tech company is cellulant though they had to partner with a Nigerian. These guys started small almost 20 years ago and have been growing the business slowly and re-inventing themselves as tech waves pass. They were the kings of ringtones those early days when everyone had a kabambe without internet, to get an new rington you would send an sms to a shortcode. the ringtone codes would be advertised daily on newspapers. Today, they are into payments, powering most banks SMS and USSD codes they have their own mobile money product piloting in other African countries I think. Very inspiring! Was very shocked when they lost 6 engineers to the Dusit2 attack.
In this country there’s a large disconnect between the guys who have money, they tend to be old school people who have never
adapted to the internet generation, while the people who have ideas are young but have no cash and are willing to sell those ideas for anything
that comes their way like Safaricom bought m-pesa.
Chances are a startup like Twiga,Bitpesa, could have been already been envisioned by a local but because they had no capital they shlved
it until a foreigner with money came and started it.Just think about it how many local tech investors do you know? investors tend to be interested in something they’ve worked in look at Son he invests in tech because he was in that business,
Kenyans also don’t like taking risks, founding a startup involves putting your money and time into something your not sure can make money, they prefer getting the 8 to 5 jobs or starting a business which they’ve seen make money which is why there are so many clones everywhere
on the contrary Americans for example are trend setters, they’re wiling to risk it even if it means going bankrupt, sleeping on the streets or even going to a third world country
Although this may sound demeaning but specifically white Americans are outgoing/trend setters cause of the 607 billionaires in the US only 5 are black (MJ, Jay z, Oprah and two other executives in the entertainment industry.
Look at the guys who are supposed to create an ecosystem akina Sam Gichuru .kazi ni globetrotting na pesa ya investors na kudinya interns .Another idiot who went full 100 na corruption is Macharia wa Seven Seas but it seems like he has of late fallen out of favour in government circles.I remember he inflated the value of the company and defrauded investors .Ghaseer sana
“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
Keep on making excuses. Before you realize it pervade every aspect of your life.