Godfrey: Timbo, delighted to be joined by you today. OkHi is one of four fintech startups that Visa has chosen to invest in as part of the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program. Can you tell us a little bit about how OkHi was founded and your journey so far?
Timbo: OkHi's mission is to put 1 billion people on the map. The first time I discovered the magnitude of this problem was when I was working at Google, and we were launching Google Maps across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I realized that 4 billion people who don't have physical addresses couldn't be found on Google Maps, which was completely crazy to me. A few years later, while traveling on a sabbatical around East and West Africa, I experienced the problem firsthand – struggling to find places and having people find me. This is a global problem, costing the economy $200 billion a year.
So, I quit Google, moved to Kenya, and co-founded OkHi. The key problem we are solving for is that financial services cannot verify where their customers are, which impacts compliance, fraud prevention, and lending. We've developed a technological product that enables businesses to know exactly where their customers are.
Godfrey: Listening to a real problem and the focus of a company on a very specific issue is inspiring. Can we dive into what you are doing differently to overcome this challenge?
Timbo: Firstly, we create a digital address that consists of a GPS point, a photo, and text information. The beauty is that this digital address works anywhere in the world, from densely populated slums in Nairobi to rural areas in northern Nigeria. We've proven that we can navigate to anyone's door without getting lost. Businesses can collect this digital address using a small SDK in their mobile app.
The clever part we have developed in the last 3-4 years is using location data in the phone to verify that the person spends time at that address. Our advanced AI verification engine then confirms that the person spends enough time and therefore does actually live at the address that they say they do.
Godfrey: And as you've been on this journey, can you talk about the challenges you've faced, both from a funding perspective and other challenges?
Timbo: People have been a strength for us; we've hired some of the best talent globally. We have incredible designers, engineers, operations, finance people, so I feel very fortunate about the team and that's certainly been a really interesting space to just see what incredible talent we've been able to build a company with.
However, we've faced macroeconomic challenges, such as the smaller market size in Africa compared to the US, variable infrastructure, and economic instability like the significant devaluation of the Naira in Nigeria. Essentially, we lost two thirds of our revenue from that devaluation as a result. These are common headwinds for startups and businesses on the continent.
Godfrey: Indeed, those are some significant challenges to overcome. Can you talk about the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator experience and how it has helped you and the team along your journey?
Timbo: The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator has great potential to be transformative for businesses. It was very focused on fintech, which meant the content and other startups were all in the same space as us. Our goals were to secure a partnership with Visa, build our network across Africa, and attract investment. We've achieved all three. Understanding Visa's complex business helped us pitch the right product, leading to a partnership where we aim to launch a pilot with Visa in an African market next year.
Godfrey: We are really excited about the partnership with yourselves as well. Maybe if we take a step back and think about the fintech ecosystem across Africa. Can you talk a little bit about that and the impact that it is having on the broader economic growth and financial inclusion on the continent?
Timbo: I think it's fascinating to see fintechs solving fundamental problems because, at the end of the day, that's what business and startups are doing—we're solving problems. One of my co-founders, who's Kenyan, has a lovely phrase: "As entrepreneurs in Africa, we're blessed because there are so many problems to solve."
In Nigeria, for example, payment systems had to be solved, leading to the creation of companies like Flutterwave and Paystack, enabling businesses and people to transaction digitally. You've got a huge economy of SMBs, almost 40 million, which originally were all moving and transferring with cash without any idea of really what transactions were happening.
Access to credit has also been a significant area of innovation. Companies like Money Point are providing digital services and POS machines, enabling digital transactions and more insights into inventory, which in turn facilitates access to loans. Similarly, FairMoney has done a brilliant job of creating affordable credit for anyone with a smartphone.
Godfrey: As a graduate from the first edition of the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator, do you have any advice for entrepreneurs who have perhaps applied to the accelerator or those in our third cohort who are starting their journey?
Timbo: One key aspect is to stay focused on the problem. As entrepreneurs, it's easy to get caught up in ideas and solutions, but fundamentally, you have to solve a significant problem that you are passionate about. The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program is fantastic, but you get out what you put in. Make the most of the relationships, manage them well, and ensure you're on point.
This is a space where Visa and others are observing how you run your business, so it's essential to be your best self and best company throughout the program. You have to make your own luck.
Godfrey: Great advice, Timbo. Can you perhaps share a little about how graduating from the Africa Fintech Accelerator has impacted the business, particularly about a month ago, when we made the announcement that we're delighted to invest in OkHi? What's been the market response in that regard?
Timbo: The response has been incredibly positive. At the end of the program, Visa organized a demo day where we pitched to numerous investors across Africa. This helped us secure further investment. Visa's capital investment in OkHi is valuable, but having the Visa brand on our cap table is a huge vote of confidence for our team and other potential investors.
Following the announcement, we saw a 10x increase in traffic to our website and and as a result, we've had four times the number of leads. We've had inquiries from a bank in Kenya, a credit bureau in Zimbabwe, an identity business in Ivory Coast, and a B2B credit business in Mexico. This demonstrates the tangible benefits of partnering with Visa and its global reach, enabling us to expand and grow outside of Nigeria.
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