Newly-launched South African startup mbora, which develops Internet of Things (IoT) and solar based technology to create connected sales and distribution outlets, has launched its Smart Booth platform.
The mbora platform has achieved significant traction since its first pilot in Malawi in 2016, and is currently rolling out its Smart Booths in partnership with early adopters in the mobile money and banking domains.
Key features of the Smart Booths include a suite of IoT sensors detecting customer footfall and queues along with customer agent performance and behaviour, as well as solar powered lighting, security and device charging.
They also feature digital displays to deliver direct promotions and third party advertising to customers and agent education, and intelligent data streams facilitating visibility of individual and collective booth performance.
Smart Booths Service Providers have immediate access to advanced performance management data. Leveraging the latest in IoT and solar technology, mbora delivers performance and operational data streams to enable more efficient and effective agent and customer management for booth-based sales and distribution outlets.
“It’s been a highly challenging and rewarding journey but it’s incredibly exciting for our outstanding team to be an African business at the cutting edge of IoT for high performing customer interfaces,” said Adrian Raisbeck, mbora’s co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO).
“We’re passionate about supporting businesses that are sustainably developing African communities by enabling access to crucially important financial and micro-insurance services. We support our customers by improving visibility of their agent networks and optimising their distribution and customer experience. For our customers, this obviously translates into a direct impact on their customer retention and loyalty while improving their market share.”
mbora’s Smart Booths can be deployed either as a complete system or as a retrofit to existing booths, aimed at transforming the basic booths that are currently widely deployed across Africa into IoT-enabled, advanced customer engagement hubs. Both systems come with IoT-enabled security that automates detection, deterrence, denial and response to unattended booths after hours.
