Kenyan trio takes on money transfer giants with Eastpesa

Co-founders of Pesahub, the company operating Eastpesa, Seroney Memba (left) and Javan Owino. Eastpesa is an online platform. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NMG 

By LYNET IGADWAH

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Summary

• The co-founders of Pesa Hub Limited —the company operating Eastpesa— are Seroney Memba (29), Javan Owino (28) and Charles Imo (27).
• To date, the platform has 1,500 registered and verified users, with 800 of these being most active.
• The active users are Kenyans in the US, the UK, Botswana and Nigeria.
• Daily transaction volumes range between Sh46,000 and Sh800,000 with the total transacted amount standing at Sh4million.

Three Kenyans in their 20s have jumped into the cut-throat business of global money transfer, riding on their homegrown fintech company to take on established giants.

The three are the brains behind Eastpesa, an online platform for money transfer in Africa through online payments, cross-border transfer and e-commerce.

The service allows clients to remit amounts of between Sh1,000 and Sh70,000 instantly to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. The transfers are made using credit and debit cards as well as mobile money wallets including M-Pesa, Airtel money, Tigo, MTN and Equitel.

The co-founders of Pesa Hub Limited —the company operating Eastpesa— are Seroney Memba (29), Javan Owino (28) and Charles Imo (27).

The trio are competing with remittance giants such as Western Union, MoneyGram, Xpress Money and banks which do funds transfer across this region.

For one to remit through Eastpesa, they need to register on it by submitting a valid mobile phone number, an operational email address, their passport details and their debit/credit card number.

“These details are vital in verifying the senders’ identity and are in compliance with the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act,” said Mr Owino, the software developer. Verifying a person’s details involves reaching out to their bank and is a process that can take up to two hours upon submission.

Information on the sender is requested for progressively until the last step is fulfilled and prior to an account in their in their name being established on the platform.

To date, the platform has 1,500 registered and verified users, with 800 of these being most active. The active users are Kenyans in the US, the UK, Botswana and Nigeria.

Daily transaction volumes range between Sh46,000 and Sh800,000 with the total transacted amount standing at Sh4million since Eastpesa went live in August 2015.

Aside from sending and receiving money, users on the platform can subscribe to scheduled payments where a stipulated amount is sent to preferred individuals at specified dates of month.

It takes about a minute for the money to arrive at its destination where the recipient can collect from the local mobile money agents. 

A sender can also opt to purchase airtime directly for the recipient especially if the amounts remitted are below Sh1,000.

Eastpesa makes its money through commission charged on transactions –depending on frequency and amount sent- and from airtime sales. “We charge a 1-3 per cent commission per transaction,” the developers say, with the fee tied to the amount sent. “Eastpesa has been able to break the barriers of time and distance to avail money to recipients even in the remotest of villages via mobile phones,” said Mr Memba who manages networking on Eastpesa. Mr Memba and Mr Owino met at the Institute of Advanced Technology (IAT) where they undertook a diploma in ICT and Management.

Upon completion of their studies in 2010, they teamed up with Mr Imo and immediately embarked on designing a platform that would address the challenges involved in sending money home.

“Our target is to be able to transact Sh8 million in a day per country in the near future,” said Mr Owino. He said the biggest challenge in operating the business is the difficulty in getting established businesses to partner with as well and lack of mentorship for startups in the country.

Eastpesa is competing for a share of the market with money transfer service providers such as World Remit, Wave, Western Union and MoneyGram.

Owing to its outstanding abilities to transform the financial services industry for inclusive growth, Eastpesa has been mentioned in Let’s Talk Payments among 38 FinTech companies in Kenya to look out for in 2017.

In 2016, Eastpesa was nominated in the African FinTech Awards and this year, it has made it to the final list of the the Benzinga Fintech awards where winners will be announced on May 11.

The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards celebrate the most innovative firms that are changing the way people interact with finance.