Lipa+ is a mobile POS solution designed for the Kenyan merchants so as to accept both credit and debit card payments by just swiping the card on a device attached to an android phone. Our sole mission is to make cashless payments easy and to have this device in every town and in every village in Kenya. All you need is an android phone and you can start receiving payments from a pci dss compliant device, whether you selling coffee, clothes, books or you a shoe shiner, you can now accept card payments in a very secure, easy, affordable and reliable solution The story, How lipa+ was born----------------------- Two mechanical engineering students had this idea of creating a device which could be attached on the audio port of a phone so as to accept and process card payments. As any other student with a big idea would possibly do; they approached their lecturer. They explained their idea hoping he could help make the concept a workable prototype but the guy told them to concentrate on damn engineering books and to stop working on irrelevant projects. One day..... several years later, one of the guys finds me with an entrepreneurial magazine about how Jack Dorsey (twitter co-founder) had founded a company called square which had processed payments close to 15 billion dollars in the yr 2012.... Considering, square was born at the time these guys had the same exact idea, This guy literally went nuts, he like halted all his current projects, called his other friend and passionately designed from scratch the device, sent it over abroad and in a weeks time.... The first physical prototypes were in Nairobi..... Since i was the first person to see them, i was thrilled at how exactly these guys had created a device which effectively worked.. That evening, met over my dad for coffee.. showed him photos of the device and he was like i want to invest in this project. The next day i called the 2 guys over for a partnership meeting and to cut the story short Kenswipe Ltd was born. We spent our first days approaching almost every payment processor in kenya; So funny someday we went up to National bank and the guys there were like: If you are here for attachment/internship request drop your CVS there but we were like ....... Dude...... we want to be your business partners. We met other players in this market but our best encounter was with the Director of kopokopo ( The guys behind Lipa na Mpesa) This is the one guy who gave us enough time and has being there for us. At first creating lipa+ seemed really hard but our chief Technical Guy toiled passionately to make it happen. We are greatful to God for the technical breakthrough. Everything seems HARD b4 you Try. It doesnt matter if your idea is rejected........... Believe in it to the end. Just do it..... Create that first prototype. Every guy who sees this stuff goes crazy, with the government agenda to go cashless by year 2017. This is a big boys industry: Mastercard, Visa, Equity bank and Kenswitch but with God, every mountain is a hill. You have that dream..... that idea.... dont give up on it yet, be positive and rise to the occasion. JUST DO IT SERIES ----- daily chronicles of the #boldpreneur
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 09:21:24 +0000
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