Kenyan fintech startup TozzaPlus is optimistic of further growth after initial strong uptake of its accounting, payroll management and invoicing software by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Launched earlier this year, TozzaPlus simplifies accounting, payroll management, invoicing and customer relations for SMEs, via its three modules: Tozza Accounting, Tozza CRM, and Tozza Payroll.
The solutions simplify accounting and bookkeeping, periodically generating reports that allow business owners to keep track of their income and expenditure.
Founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Paul Kimani told Disrupt Africa the startup had received a good response from the market since its launch, adding he was optimistic there was room for more growth. The startup is already working with almost 60 companies and generating hundreds of invoices.
“Kenya has been in a continuous electioneering period, and that negatively skews our uptake statistics. Our results since launching have, however, been impressive, and we hope with the expected upcoming political stability more and more SMEs will embrace our product,” he said.
“The majority of businesses in Kenya fall under the umbrella of SMEs. Ourselves being one, we discovered that we had a big problem in keeping proper accounting records, and in proper customer communications. Talking to some of our customers, we discovered that they had similar challenges as we did. That’s where we got our market niche.”
TozzaPlus faces stiff competition in Kenya, but Kimani said that only serves to make it stronger.
“The more competition there is, the harder we work to ensure that our product is the best in the market,” he said.
“The fact that we have customised our product to the Kenyan market places us a notch higher than our competitors. Payouts via local banks and M-Pesa integration are some of the add-ons on TozzaPlus that makes us feel Kenyan.”
The startup is self-funded for now, but in the process of raising external capital to allow it to move to the next level. Although currently focused on SMEs, Kimani plans to in time adapt the product to other sectors, such as schools and larger companies.
“All these sectors have different needs and different ways of running and maintaining their books and customers. Custom tailoring our product is the next phase, which God willing we will start in January 2018,” he said.
“We also have plans to have desktop apps to supplement our SaaS for users who might lack internet connectivity.”
