Kenya’s telco giant, Safaricom, etablished the Alpha Innovation Lab in 2017. The Alpha Lab was set up to spearhead research and development in the telco.
All has not been well since it commenced operations, as evidenced by high profile exits.
In October of 2018, Kamal Bhattacharya, the Chief Innovation Officer and head of Alpha Lab exited the research organization less than a year and a half after joining.
Less than a year later, Huston Malande, former Safaricom Alpha’s Senior Product Designer has announced he is leaving the company.
Making the announcement on his Twitter, he wrote, “As I ponder what to do next with my life and skills, I’m writing an article dropping on Monday (today) about how we built one of the best innovation teams on the continent,” he added “Safaricom Alpha, it was fun while it lasted. Onward and upwards.”
In a subsequent post he explained that he will give more insight into his decision at a later stage, quote, “once the dust settles.”
Circumstances surrounding Kamal Bhattacharya, former Alpha Lab Head’s exit were also just as unclear.
Related article: Safaricom Invests Sh407 Million in M-Pesa Global Business
Huston Malande’s work at Safaricom Alpha Lab involved designing sprints with high level management as well as providing mission critical UX expertise for innovative products at Safaricom Alpha.
Since its inception, Safaricom-Alpha launched Bonga, a messaging mobile application that will link to its widely used mobile money platform Mpesa.
Bonga was later on renamed to Zwuup.
