88mph, a seed fund and the first tech accelerator in the heart of the “silicon savannah” and the African tech scene is to host a Startups Demo day which is slated to hold on Thursday, December 13, 2012 in Nairobi Kenya.
The Demo day is to mark the end of their 3 months program and to showcase various startups that they have developed and invested into. In a statement by 88mph, they said “We are coming to the end of our 3 months program and the startups have leaped forward. In 3 months all have moved to post-revenue. Some of startups might present investment opportunities; others might be looking for key staff to fuel their expansion. Investment opportunities will vary from private angels at $10k up to $500k in growth funding.”
Program Schedule
3:00pm – 7:00pm: Open House (Meet the Startups)
The program is to kick-off at 3:00pm with an Open House (Meet the Startups) event, where people will get the opportunity to get close to the start-ups, chat to the founders see their presentations, and learn about the investment opportunities. The startups will also be available throughout the day and have small stands where you can go and meet the startups and talk to them about their businesses.
In addition to the 3pm to 7pm event, there will also be a continuous cycle of short presentations so you can get a quick introduction of what the startups are.
7:00pm – 9:00pm: Get Social
During the hours of 7:00pm – 9:00 pm will be the Get Social event where you will enjoy a fashion show, hosted by Closet49.com, and get social with other investors and networks. Also, one of the startups, Mdundo.com will have an official launch of their product with live performances by some of mdundo’s artists.
Furthermore, 88mph have invited their full network of friends and mentors, both local and international, so you’ll have a chance to meet some of the most interesting people in the industry.
The Startups
Mdundo.com
Problem: Artists can’t make money out of selling music to phones.
Concept: The heart beats to music. Mdundo makes is possible for artists to monetize music downloads to phones. This is done through scratch cards similar to those used for airtime credit. The cards are distributed free of charge to the artists, who then sell them directly to their fans – and the artists keeps all the cash from what they sell, disrupting the current payment system through the telcos where the artists typically get 10%. The main stream of revenue is through selling music directly through the mdundo mobile site.
Progress: Mdundo has already signed up 50 artists, including some of Kenya’s biggest names. Signed deals with two major brands bringing in more than $35,000 USD.
Manyatta Rent
Problem: Most Kenyans do not have the option to pay rent through mobile money. Landlords/agents spend huge resources on collecting payments and furthermore, fraud is widespread.
Concept: Manyatta Rent will enable tenants in Kenya to pay rent via mobile money by offering an estate management system (EMS) for commercial real estate agents in Kenya. The EMS makes it easy to pay rent for the tenant and easy to receive rent for the landlord by automating accounting/payments. Manyatta Rent charges a fixed fee per transaction to generate revenue.
Progress: Manyatta Rent has already signed contracts with 3 agents and a bank and did a pilot. In the pilot, than 15% of the eligible tenants chose to pay rent via M-Pesa using Manyatta Rent.
Mpepea
Problem: Kenyans have poor access to quick credit.
Concept: Mpepea provides emergency micro-credit through mobile money transfers. With sparse access to banks and ATM’s there is significant demand for easy access to immediate or emergency credit. Mpepea provides instant loans through mobile money transfers. To reduce risk, Mpepea signs contracts with credit unions (SACCO’s) or employers, who guarantee the loans against paychecks or savings. Primary source of revenue is a fixed fee per loan.
Progress: M-Pepea has so far signed up 3 SACCO’s and disbursedloans totalling more than 200.000Ksh.
Gamsole
Problem: Few phone games focusing on Africa with African content.
Concept: Gamsole makes games for mobile phones targeting the African users. A team of 3 Nigerians are building social games that stick out to the African user. They base their games on local history, customs, games, and current events. Revenue comes from paid apps and in-app purchases.
Progress: More than 100,000 downloads and $2,000 in revenue from paid apps on Windows Phone. Launched Kazoo and Traffic Madness on Windows and Android in early December.
Closet49.com
Problem: Difficult for customers to access variety and quality fashion clothes in Kenya. Many small traders have problems reaching bigger audience.
Concept: Closet49.com is an online marketplace for women’s fashion, targeting the African market. The platform works as an intermediary between the buyer and the seller, allowing traders to easily reach a wide audience and consumers to easily browse through a large number of goods. Closet49 handles logistics and distribution and holds payments in escrow until the transaction is completed. Revenue comes from commissions on sales.
Progress: New marketplace site built and launched. 47 traders signed up with a total inventory of +700 items live on the site. Total revenue from sales exceed 60.000ksh over the last two months.
MoVASgroup
Problem: People run out of airtime when they are not near an airtime reseller
Concept: MoVAS emergency credit lets users take airtime (prepaid phone credits) loans when they run out. The loans are repaid next time the user fills up the prepaid account. The product is sold to telcos and historically increases the telco’s revenue by up to 20%.
Progress: MoVAS deployed with Wataniya (Qtel) in the Maldives in early december. Contracts signed with 1 other telco and 4 more in immediate pipeline.
PesaTalk.com
Problem: No good source of financial information in Kenya.
Concept: Launched in March 2012, Pesatalk.com is a financial website with a goal is to help its readers understand what’s happening in the world of local finance, how current affairs affect the users, and how the users can use this knowledge to their benefit. It covers topics such as banking, debt, home ownership, investment in stocks, bonds and real estate, mortgages, taxes and budgeting. PesaTalk is selling advertisements on their site.
Progress: PesaTalk has a team of 6 Kenyans in place and write 15+ articles/day. Through November, PesaTalk grew weekly unique visitors by 55% to 8,500/week.
HiviSasa.com
Problem: No hyperlocal news media in Kenya.
Concept: HiviSasa.com is a news site providing local news on a county level in Kenya. The content is delivered by locally based citizen journalists and controlled by editors at the office before published. The journalists submit articles to the head office and if the article gets published, the journalist will receive payment via mobile money. Channels of revenue includes banner advertising, sponsored posts, sms-alerts and classifieds.
Progress: The site originally launched in Nakuru in April 2012, but over the past 6 months expanded to 3 more counties. The site currently publish more than 600 unique news articles/week and have more than 4000 unique visitors/week.
Ghafla.com
Problem: No source for content on local celebrities in Kenya.
Concept: Ghafla is filling the content gap in the East African market for quality online content in the entertainment domain. There is very little quality content about the East African stars from music, films, etc. and Ghafla has created a broad media portal to attract young Kenyan users. Ghafla sells advertising and affiliate programs.
Progress: Broke even in september 2012, when they sold advertisement for 130.000Ksh/month. Boast more than 100.000 unique/week.
