Kenyan fintech startup, Triply, has been selected to participate in the Y Combinator’s winter 2024 batch. The company, which offers payment solutions for travel businesses, is not the only African startup in the accelerator program; it joins Cleva, a cross-border payment service, and Miden, an API startup.
In Africa, small businesses constitute 90% of the travel industry. However, due to inadequate payment infrastructures, they often experience difficulties in receiving payments, forcing them to resort to manual payment methods that decrease the efficiency of their booking systems.
Triply, a startup established in 2021 by Peter Wachira and Collins Muthinja, provides a solution to this problem by helping travel businesses collect payments and automate their operations. Additionally, the company promotes these businesses on its marketplace, meeting the needs of the growing local travel market in Kenya, which is expected to reach a value of $749,000 by 2027.
In recent years, the tourism industry has become a significant source of foreign income for Kenya, generating about $2.13 billion in 2022. The country is also anticipating an increase in the number of tourists, with 2.4 million visitors expected by 2026, up from 2.1 million in 2021. With an expanding middle class and rising disposable income, more Kenyans are exploring domestic tourism. As such, Triply has a significant market opportunity to explore and expand.
