Kenyan online platform Kodipay has launched to help make renting transactions easy for property managers, landlords, and tenants.
Launched in 2016 by co-founders Felix Runye and Micheal Mburu, the software solution offers quite a range of services to clients depending on their needs and wants, from renting to rent collection and to vacancy listing. The platform has affordable modules that users can subscribe to at very affordable rates.
According to Runye, the co-founders had taken the time to observe and study clients’ problems in the rental sphere and how best the problems can be solved. Armed with the business skills as well as the development skills derived from the research, Kodipay was founded.
Speaking in an interview with Innovation Village on the inspiration behind Koidipay, Runye said, “Being young entrepreneurs with an ambition of helping people perform their duties well, we saw an opportunity to help people in the renting business manage their day to day duties efficiently using technology. With everyone trying to catch up with the digital world, as the famous quote goes “necessity being the mother of invention,” Kodipay was born to fill the neglected gap and address the problems we face on how we pay, manage and live every day.”
Kodipay is not just an average online software to help in day to day activities. It is fully crafted and designed to meet the need of users depending on the problems they want to tackle. Testimonials from clients show us how much impact kodipay is making to their lives. Also, with Kodipay, property managers no longer have to keep diaries to manage their tenants. No more worries associated with tenants paying in due time or not as tracking of defaulters and follow up has been made easy by Kodipay.
Speaking on how the platform works, the co-founder explained, “Kodipay works in 4 simple steps, firstly, you sign up, then you search for your property, and connect to your property manager or landlord, and finally you start making payments as a tenant.”
“As a property manager or landlord, it’s as easy as clicking a button, you just sign up, add a property then invite your tenants and you are done!”
On traction, Runye said, “In the beginning, we had about 3 users only (friends and family) who were facing the problem we were addressing. Kodipay was still quite unrefined and very complex as compared to now. We learned what our customers wanted and decided to break down the system to accommodate all users in the system.
“We sat down as a team and repackaged kodipay into what it is now, our user base shot from 3 to 15 in a span of 2 weeks with quick referrals from satisfied customers majorly landlords and property managers. Within a month from November 2017, we were processing 1500 tenants with 18 landlords and 12 property managers. Averaging to about $3000 rent collected via Kodipay.”
According to the co-founder, the startup journey has not been a rosy one however there have encouraging moments.
“Being a startup, capital has been the major challenge, having to do some side hustles as well as ensuring we are still pursuing our goals. We planned out our time and ensured we were being productive in terms of delivering our services as well as keeping our clients who had signed up engaged at all times.
“Another challenge has been getting expertise to guide us on what we are doing and how to do it right, having no enough capital to write down big cheques, we had to look up to companies and mentors and through that, we have achieved more than we were expecting.
“Connecting with people who have already passed where we are has been a very big advantage for us. We have achieved adding more team members to our company, young dedicated and very passionate guys to work with. They are the success behind kodipay as, without them, none of this could be possible.
“Kodipay has succeeded in being mentored by Alibaba and Unctad helping us achieve our goals in a timely and effective manner as well as getting advice on how to manage and do various tasks to reach our milestones and targets,” he said.
Speaking on future plans for the startup, Runye said, “Our plan in kodipay is to scale beyond Kenya one day and on to Nigeria, South Africa and the rest of the countries in Africa. With the current trends, we know we can achieve this and much more. Currently, we are still operating within Kenya.”
On the evolving African startup ecosystem, he said, “It is very vibrant full of opportunities. Investors are opening up the ecosystem by helping startups achieve their full potential, increasing job opportunities to young people, helping countries develop faster. Consequently, this is reducing general unemployment and poverty rates in African countries immensely.”
On the Kenyan startup and tech ecosystem, the co-founder, said, “Kenya is well known for its adoption to new technology. Kenyans aren’t shy about testing out new ideas and they are always ready to provide solutions to problems. This makes Kenya a very lucrative place in Africa to test out an idea and probably launch it to a fully fledged company.
“Many successful companies across Africa and even the world have secured a place in this vibrant country. The government is very supportive of innovative ideas and thus starting a company or a startup is as easy as clicking a button and paying very affordable rates to get the relevant documentation.”
