Chipper Cash, a Fintech company that developed a modern mobile money-send app and operates in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, the UK, South Africa, Australia, Colombia, Tanzania, Canada, hit a hurdle with their ID verification process that was required to verify identities of millions of users in numerous countries. Using existing products that were available proved costly and
Instead of just paying another company to do it, they decided to develop their own proprietary system in-house taking only 18 months to do so. Once completed they recognised that the product was a potential new revenue stream and so the Chipper ID product was born in 2023. Their cost saving exercise turned into a whole new product and is now a revenue generator for the start-up
Another recent development at NALA, which started out with a dream of becoming a fast and reliable money transfer company, hit some bumps in the development process. The Partners decided to focus on international money transfers for African people living abroad sending money back home. Their experience while building their product, showed that remittance game was riddled with problems. Issues such as slow transfers and sky-high fees was making the product difficult to commercialize. NALA in typical entrepreneurial spirit, decided to build their own payment platform, Rafiki, to ensure that transfers were fast with minimal delays and that fees were fair to the users.
The Group also realised that Rafiki held value beyond their own business, and that other companies were struggling with the same unreliable partners causing delays and frustration.
The new product held the solution for many other businesses and NALA have not stopped their product development either. NALA isn’t only offering a remittance service but is now developing the product as a fully-fledged B@B payment service for businesses in Africa, that has often been beset with transfer issues and high cost structures. NALA now boasts more than 500 000 users.
African start-ups are showing the world that innovation and success comes not simply from building cool new Tech products but should also be focused on providing sustainable practical and affordable solutions for real problems Africans face on a daily basis.
