snaapCash

Most of the existing platforms for E-commerce ad online services in the Pan African Market has no suitable micro-credit payment option for customers and suitable advance payment to the service providers on card payments and money owed by platform owners to facilitate customer's payment convenience and elimination of cash liquidity gaps respectively.

Taxi App service providers reject trips for credit or debit cards as payments made take a long time to reach their accounts affecting their cash liquidity

snaapCash integrates with online platforms to facilitate a flexible virtue micro-credit as a payment option for customers and advance payments to the service providers on credit and debit cards

Our micro-credit promotes responsible borrowing on a need based approach,growth in small retail because of business credit,affordable micro-credit promoting financial inclusion and improved quality of live through day to day cash liquidity for the online service providers in the informal sector

Online platform has no suitable and flexible virtue credit payment option for customers to facilitate access to online services and E-commerce when on low cash flow and at times when estimates given for services is lower than actual cost.At times,small business owners do not have enough money to make online purchases to meet market demand leading to business loss and stunted business scalability

In the online service platforms like tele medicine,consultants want a regular for the services offered.However,it is difficult for these companies to process payments on short frequency as a result of high patients turn over

The taxi apps platforms have become popular across African markets with uber alone being in 22 markets across Africa.often,payments through credit and debit cards are made and many of the service providers on the platforms reject request for rides because this mode of payment lowers the operational cash liquidity 

Existing mobile money lenders in the African market have high credit fee up to 24% per month making it expensive for the borrowers and increased indebtedness in the economy as they don't have a market niche to serve and end up lending to the jobless who has no repayment means

snaapCash integrates with online platforms for goods and services to extend virtue micro-credit to their users in the payment mode menu promoting customer convenience as they can  obtain services or purchase goods on credit

snaapCash partners with taxi apps platforms like uber to provide advance payment to the drivers for payment by debit and credit cards promoting convenience and cash liquidity during operations and increase acceptance of credit cards as a payment method

We partner with telemedicine service providers like The Pathology Network provide advance payments for the consultants in order to promote royalty and commitment as to many of them these services are part time job

• Online platform has no suitable and flexible virtue credit payment option for customers to facilitate access to online services and E-commerce when on low cash flow and at times when estimates given for services is lower than actual cost.At times,small business owners do not have enough money to make online purchases to meet market demand leading to business loss and stunted business scalability
• In the online service platforms like tele medicine,consultants want a regular for the services offered.However,it is difficult for these companies to process payments on short frequency as a result of high patients turn over
• The taxi apps platforms have become popular across African markets with uber alone being in 22 markets across Africa.often,payments through credit and debit cards are made and many of the service providers on the platforms reject request for rides because this mode of payment lowers the operational cash liquidity 
• Existing mobile money lenders in the African market have high credit fee up to 24% per month making it expensive for the borrowers and increased indebtedness in the economy as they don't have a market niche to serve and end up lending to the jobless who has no repayment means

Pan African markets has experienced growth in the number of smart phone technologies users in cities across Africa and internet connection among the middle and low income population.This is associated with the progressive growth in demand online services and E-commerce and increase in the number of service providers with gaps in the financial liquidity and suitability for users on credit payment option and service providers on advance payments on credit and debit cards to promote

snaapCash integrate with online platforms to provide suitable micro-credit for service payment to the user and advance payment on credit and debit cards real time

The existing mobile money lenders in the pan African market are expensive with a monthly fee between 15%-24% with no lending mandate,increasing the level of indebtedness among the jobless population the majority being youth with increased non-working culture through gambling and drugs abuse by the youths

With the growth in the online solutions for E-services and E-commerce there is a need for an affordable,flexible and suitable virtue micro-credit for the online platform to facilitate payment by credit and advance payment for the service providers to reduce business frustrations with the increased use of cards as a payment mode by the customers

snaapCash innovation promotes accessible and affordable micro-credit and; advance payments to taxi apps and telemedicine service providers  as follows:

• Integration with online platforms-snaapCash integrate with the existing online platforms to facilitate virtue micro-credit payment options and advance payment request platforms
• Advance payment for providers-we facilitate up to 75% of advance payments on real time for all money paid by card for the service providers and providers who get paid by the app owners like telemedicine consultants and swvl drivers
• Affordable and flexible micro-credits- We offer virtue micro-credit at 7% monthly fee and the micro-credit limit is flexible for utilisation on multiple platforms integrated with snaapCash
• micro-credit mandate-most of the online platform users are middle and low income population with a regular business and employment income,thus low chance of indebtedness that arise from irresponsible borrowers among the jobless population

snaapCash’ technological architecture is composed of an Artificial Intelligence engine cluster built and trained on machine learning model for performing credit scoring and data analysis. 

snaapCash pre scores its customers using mobile money (M-Pesa) data as the system is integrated into the mobile money system.

Our cluster-based micro service stack and the use of a combination of SQL and Non-SQL data storage a gives room for handling the future scale demand on snaapCash. Its also enables real-time processing for transactions during usage.

SnaapCash’ micro-loan disbursements happen in real-time without a prior-approval to remove a human intervention for a better cash experience.

Our solution uses the following as benchmark or evidence that the technology works

a) credit module bench mark

Safe Boda Cashless system- Safe Boda in Uganda and Kenya provide mobility services using the taxi app and the cashless system allows users to pay using a wallet.The wallet has been integrated to the platform such that users select the cashless option on the payment menu. 

Uber credits in India provide a credit payment option for the users for trips and is availed on the platform payment menu

1. https://safeboda.com/ke/index.php#ourdrivers

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0EXPyTyiDs

snaapCash use the same approach by developing a credit wallet and integrating it to the existing multiple platforms where users self-register for snaapCash credit,the system generates a credit score using mobile money data and provide a limit that can be utilised by the user on multiple platforms

b) Advance Payment

Bon in India provides advance payment to the uber drivers for payments by credit and debit cards to ensure operational cash liquidity and claiming from uber for reimbursements at a fee

https://bon.pe/

snaapCash use the same approach for the taxi apps drivers and rider for payments by cards and advance payment for swvl drivers in cases where the user pays the app owner and the owner pays the driver.

Online business platforms for services and E-commerce increase and growth  in the pan African Market is associated with high adoption of smart phone technology and increased internet connectivity in the urban and peri-urban areas.Majority of these platforms serve the middle and lower income population with most of the service providers falling in the same categories. Majority of the users of these platforms have a regular income but need affordable micro-credits options to facilitate payments while on low cash availability and advance payment for money paid by card or owed to them by the platform owners which is not present on the platforms today.

snaapCash integrate with the payment systems on the platforms to offer a credit payment option for the customers in the payment mode menu and option for advance payment request for the service providers on money paid by card or owed to them by the platform owners

With snaapCash,the middle and low income population access affordable and flexible micro-credit to facilitate payments on the online platforms  as cash top-up or credit purchases.With the increased use of debit and credit cards as mode of payments by the customers,the service providers like taxi app drivers access advance payments facilitating cash liquidity for their livelihood and day to day operations

We are currently negotiating for a partnership with swvl Kenya and have signed a partnership with The Pathology Network,a tele-medicine company to carry out a pilot with 100 drivers,50 medical specialists for advance payment and 5,000 end customer for the micro-credit in readiness for our fundraising in the seed round

Our solution target at serving 500,000 middle and low income earners within the first year for the micro credit top up and at least 100,000 services providers (suppliers) within the first year of operation.

Over the next 5 years, we aim at serving 1 million service providers across the pan African markets for the advance payments and 4 million end users for the micro-credit 

Our credit score engine has been developed based on mobile money data for the customers and integrate with multiple platforms to allow for flexibility in utilisation of the micro-credit limit provided

Our goal sign up the first 5 partnership with online platforms owners within the first year. currently, we have closed a partnership with The Pathology Network and are in the process of partnering with swvl Kenya for a Minimum Viable Product(MVP) pilot.Our strategic plan is closing an additional 3 partnerships with players like Uber,Bolt and Glovo in the next year post MVP. In the third year,we target at closing 10 new partnerships in translation to scale to other Eastern African markets by leverage the partnerships signed up in the first 2 years

This approach will enable us to serve at least 1 million and 4 million service providers and end users respectively.Our Impact metrics are as follows:

1. Financial Inclusion- Promoting easy access to micro-credits to the end users for digital services and E-commerce of whom majority falls in the middle and low income groups

2. Access to small business credit for online retail traders where they purchase goods for resale promoting self employment and business growth

3. Descent Jobs creation- Taxi Apps service providers and tele-medicine consultants become cash liquid for seamless operations at work and meet daily cost of living through advance payments 

4. payment convenience- People access affordable and flexible micro-credit services while on low cash 

The barriers at the current stage of our business are as follows:

• Low capital availability

At the present stage of the business, business operations and product development has been purely finance through bootstrapping by the founders.Fundraising visibility with investors and donors is low at this early stage of the business.However,the visibility is necessary in facilitating financing of technology development and refinement,team capacity building, Business operations and commercial pilot 

• Existing gaps in the team capacity

Due to the limited financial resources ,we have gaps within the team that need to be filled on the technical ,legal and finance departments.These gaps are magnified at the point of transation to scale with the growing business demands

• New market competition 

Over a period of time,we foresee potential competitor trying to replicate our business model from other markets 

• Defaulters on the micro-credit

micro-credit business is associated with a general risk of default by customers and often presumed to be a high risk by investors 

Our mitigation mitigation are as follows:

• Low capital availability risk

We are currently in discussion with multiple angel investors for the investment in the pre-seed round of $250,000 prior to the MVP pilot.

We have applied for  early stage acceleration programs and are keen on the Eco-Bank acceleration selection as it give us the opportunity to partner for loan book financing. The Minimum Viable Product pilot traction will facilitate unlocking more follow on funding with private and institutional investors 

• Existing gaps in the team capacity

Hiring competitive personnel for senior executive and back office positions.We will outsource some of the non-core business activities to facilitate business growth at low recurrent cost

• New market competition 

We are negotiating for  exclusive contracts with our business partners for East African market in making sure that we limit direct market competition.Our key partnership will be a barrier to market entry for our direct competitors.

Existing platforms do not pause a threat as we are targeting an aggregated customer base in the different platforms as opposed to independent app targeting a general population

• Defaulters on the micro-credit

Virtue credit eliminate most of irresponsible borrowers and confines the market to a majority of the people with jobs and income lowering the risk of default hence low risk of default.However,we have developed a revenue share on money collected from defaulters with the platform companies to reinforce collection on top of negative listing with the credit bureau which is a common practise among the general mobile money lenders

Not applicable in our case

Currently,we have a team of 4 members with 2 working on full-time and 2 part time.

Our full time team is focused on the technology development and project management in ensuring that we achieve our set goals within the set time,while the part time is focused on bootstrapping, fundraising and building partnerships

Our advisory team is focused fundraising and providing guidance on the product development given their strong background in corporate finance and fintech solutions

Our management team is made up of personnel with diverse experience and expertise for business growth

Gibson Muriuki leads the team as the Chief Executive Officer with a strong business acumen given his background as an Economist and CPA Finalist.Worked with multiple organisation as an accountant over and a financial analyst over 3 years and senior Investment manager at Villgro Kenya for 4 years.He brings his experience in business strategy,fundraising and deals structuring,business modelling,team management,partnerships and scaling strategy among others.In his course of working with Villgro Kenya,he worked with clinicPesa,a Ugandan healthcare fintech company  as a senior business lead where he provided advisory on business strategy,team capacity building and fundraising

Millicent Wairimu lead play the role of Chief Operations Officer and bears strong project management expertise in the micro-Insurance sector,Real estate as well as an investment management company in Kenya.She possess a strong background in project management and Human resource

Kelvin Mbogo is the Chief Technical officer with vast experience as a systems developer and  cyber security consultant having worked with multiple reputable organisations including Deloitte East Africa and Telkom Kenya

Moses Waweru serve as head of policy and partnerships given his strong background in policy and entrepreneurship. He bring passion and vast business on policy development and partnerships management given his previous senior executive roles in multiple organisations.Moses is a strong team player and have worked with Gibson on joint projects at Villgro Kenya for 4 years

We have signed up 1 partnership with The Pathology Network,a telemedicine company in Kenya and are in the process of signing the second partnership with swvl Kenya, a online app transport company for shared taxi services in Kenya

For The Pathology Network,we have partnered on advance payments of the medical specialist in order to increase the level of work motivation for the medical specialists  as they can process their payment daily pay after.

swvl Kenya partnership is targeted at offering advance weekly payments to their drivers on the services rendered to increase their cash liquidity on the operations cash flows.We will also extend micro-credit top ups to their end users for credit services payments on a monthly basis 

With the two partnerships,our contracts will be exclusive for the East African market for business scale and to help counter direct competition from other players who may replicate the business model

We integrate with online platform payment systems for taxi apps, tele-medicine and E-commerce and provide their an option for payment on credit customers and an advance payment option for the service providers on payments received by card or amounts owed by the platform owners. 

Our business value proposition is easy access to affordable and flexible virtue micro-credit for the online platforms customers to ensure payment convenience and advance payments to the online platform service providers on payments by credit and debit cards and money owed to the by the platform owners to promote daily cash liquidity

Our business model sustainability approach is on multiple revenue channels as follow:

• A 7% fee on micro-credit offered to the online customer per month
• A 3% fee on advance payment

Our financial sustainability at the current stage of business is facilitated through capital raise through grants, private investors and institutional funds for a raise of $250,000 in convertible debt and an equivalent amounts in grant for the pre-seed round.This will facilitate technology development and refinement,Business operations,team capacity building,Partnerships and integrations as well as early stage loan book financing.

We are pursuing a long term partnership with a banking partner for loan book financing at scale for an accelerated growth in the number of customers served.

We achieve financial sustainability at the scaling phase on the business revenues generated through the aforesaid revenue channel and partnerships

• Funding and Fundraising visibility

If selected for the funding,snaapCash will be in a position to meet significant operational costs at the current stage of the business. The selection award of $10,000 and potentially $75,000 on good job and inclusive entrepreneurship will facilitate business milestone on customer growth and acquisition

The solve challenge is a great opportunity for business visibility with potential funders

• Early stage risk mitigation

Technical support and advise at the current stage of the business is key to us in ensuring our present stage risks are mitigated

• Facilitation of Partnerships

Solve challenge is a great opportunity for us to build networks and partnerships that are key for business growth like MIT D-labs, Eco Bank fintech acceleration program

We are interested in opportunities that can help us raise capital in the solve challenge networks and keen in building partnerships that would facilitate business scale

MIT D-Labs-We appreciate the MIT D-labs business Diagnostic approach to help come up with solutions that are suitable in addressing early stage business gaps and would love to be part of the 2020 cohort

Julio Lavalle- MIT D-lab scale ups fellow with experience in the fintech space having operated a fintech company in Peru.We would to have a partnership with him as a business and technology adviser

Eco-Bank Fintech Accelerator-This unlock a $150,000 early stage funding which lowers our funding and having Eco Bank as our partner bank in financing the loan book

Catapult 2020 program- we are pursing an opportunity to join the catapult fintech program for early stage fund with a potential to receive follow on funding from their partners in the seed round

Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund-We have applied for a competition with the UK Aid program in partnership with synapis Kenya for a GBP 100,000 funding

We are currently pursuing funding partnerships with EWB fund and Mercy Corps for potential funding

We are partnering with swvl Kenya for the product market and looking at partnering with Uber, Bolt, Safe Boda,Glovo, Jumia,Masoko and Kilimall over the next 12 months.

I am looking for a potential company at Silicon Valley to partner on technology development and refinement

Creation on good jobs and inclusive entrepreneurship is inherent in our business model as follows:

• Advance payment to digital service providers increase the cash liquidity promoting convenience for task perfomance and promotes a better livelihood as many of the service providers depends on daily wages for the day to day lives.This increases their acceptance of other modes of payment like credit and debit cards and hence the level of income.
• Indirect job creation through small business credits- Due to the high burden of unemployment,many young people have resulted to E-commerce where they purchase online goods for retail e.g. Hand bags and shoes. Integration with E-commerce platforms enable them access small credits for online purchases to meet market demands for their products and hence improving their jobs
• Micro-credit services integrated on the service platforms promotes financial inclusion to the middle and low income population on a need based approach.This promotes responsible borrowing as the target market is people with job and who can afford to repay credit.Many of the jobless youths who would otherwise be pushed to indebtedness by general lending are filtered out as the micro-credit are virtue and for specific platforms and cannot be used to finance gambling practises and drug and substance abuse
• Flexibility of our micro-credit allows the customers to utilise the limits provided on the different platforms promoting diversity of money use and optimal output
• snaapCash business policy is direct job creation for the youths and women through talent development and adoption