South African startup Karri, which provides an app that allows schools to collect dues from parents, has expanded its offering to include collections for just about any purpose or organisation that wants to collect from its members.
Launched last year, Karri is already used by just under 300 South African schools, and is now expanding further afield based on its initial success.
“Karri has provided a phenomenal solution to any school collecting funds for school outings, tours, civvies days and school fees. Instead of parents sending envelopes full of cash to their school, they can make a quick, safe and convenient payment direct from their mobile phone,” said founder Doug Hoernle.
He said the obvious next step was to expand the use of Karri to churches, camps, extra-mural activities, sports clubs, universities, ratepayers associations, support groups and even fundraising campaigns. The Karri app can be used in just about any situation when funds need to be collected from a community.
“We have seen repeatedly that more people pay faster because Karri makes it so much easier for them. Because Karri sends a message to members about collection requests, and reminds members to pay when they forget, we have found our schools and organisations collect far more from their parents and members with Karri than they did previously,” Hoernle said.
Karri is powered by Nedbank, but users can use any bank for payments. Hoernle said it is an accredited payments provider, and wanted to meet bank level regulation and compliance requirements to increase its credibility and ensure secure use of the app. In addition, users can load their credit cards and benefit from their bank’s reward programmes when paying. Karri also has a useful mobile wallet functionality.
“We have set up for scale and are ready for further growth,” Hoernle said.
