It took one Kenyan Roy Omollo living in diaspora to come up with an application-Msaada opus- that made it easier for those living outside the country to easily access services such as plumbers, cleaners, and electricians.
The lack of digital innovation in these spaces means that for one to access such services, they will need a local assistant, Omollo took that as a business opportunity after experiencing such drawbacks.
“Most of the time, people residing in the diaspora do not have the same connections to local plumbers, caterers, or electricians that people in Kenya have,” Omollo reckons.
“And because they are not online, you have to look for someone who has resided there for some time and ask them if they can give you a referral; otherwise, you could easily end up settling on someone who will short-change you,” he adds.
With a background in technology, Omollo started Msaada Opus, an online marketplace that allows people living in the diaspora request crucial services such as cleaning through a dial of a button.
To achieve, he partnered with Mercy Mbevi who had a background in finance to help ensure that the finances of the new business undertaking were in order.
The duo invested about Sh7 million of their savings into starting the business. It went into product development as well as operations.
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The two partnered with the YMCA of Kenya, which already had a membership of young professionals working in the targeted sectors.
“We wanted our people to enjoy the same quality of service access and delivery that people in more advanced economies are enjoying,” the startup’s Chief Financial Officer Mbevi says.
“The platform would thus help to remove the struggle of finding, say, a ‘fundi’ that is qualified to implement a housing project that you may want done for your parents back home.”
Within three months since launching in August 2022, they had already managed to onboard about 1500 sellers onto the platform, under 25 different categories.
The firm has yet to start charging sellers to sign up for the platform, although they soon hope to start charging users a subscription fee once they have generated enough traffic to the platform.