Jeenkwa
We are an escrow payment gateway for eCommerce stores and transacting peers and a digital wallet that can be accessed via WhatsApp in South Africa. Most south Africans do not trust online stores due to scams, as such they prefer Cash On Delivery (COD) at checkout but this is costly for merchants to maintain. Additionally low to middle income South Africans (majority) do not have a way of transacting digitally as most the solutions in this space are focussed on high income earners.
Problems
Consumers don’t trust online stores → 92% of people want Cash on Delivery
Cash on Delivery is expensive → no Small to Medium businesses can enter the eCommerce market
Consumers can’t access digital payments → existing systems are expensive and alienate consumers
These problems reinforce each other
Solution
1.Release on delivery: customers pay into Jeenkwa neutral account at checkout, where money is held until transaction is approved by both parties. If not approved within specified time, money is returned to customer.
Digital Wallet accessible via WhatsApp and Web Application gives access to peer to peer digital payments and to our release on delivery service
Solution
- Release on delivery: customers pay into Jeenkwa neutral account at checkout, where money is held until transaction is approved by both parties. If not approved within specified time, money is returned to customer.
- Digital Wallet accessible via WhatsApp and Web Application gives access to peer to peer digital payments and to our release on delivery service
- Enable small and new businesses, especially in untapped communities, to prosper and create good jobs through access to capital, networks, and technology
Problem:
1. People do not trust online stores: 54% of customers prefer Cash On Delivery (COD)
2. Existing payment gateways are not suited for SSA
3. Mobile Data is very expensive (SA 2nd highest in the world):
Networks provide cheap/free WhatsApp-specific data.
4. People cannot access online payments: only 23% of the population in SS are unbanked.
Solution:
Our wallet provides a solution to all of these problems, as it has escrow functionality, allows people to interact with it using WhatsApp, is easily integrated with existing online stores and will help new stores launch without needing to provide COD.
- Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model
- A new technology
- First to offer safe and low cost alternative to preferred payment method, Cash On Delivery, in South Africa (SA) via escrow payment gateway.
- First to offer wallet that can be accessed via a messaging application in SA. More people have access to WhatsApp than the wider internet.
We have a backend API powered built on PHP that our internal solutions and third party developers integrate with. We have a WhatsApp chatbot with a backend built on PHP that integrates with Twilio's WhatsApp API.
Additionally we build plugins for eCommerce platforms in the native languages of the platforms, e.g. PHP for Magento and WooCommerce and Javascript for Shopify.
- Software and Mobile Applications
- More people will have access to a digital wallet and will be able to send money to peers and shop online easily.
- Small - medium businesses will be able to sell online and accept payments despite not being unknown because of our escrow payment gateway.
- Existing small businesses will have an affordable and efficient alternative to Cash On Delivery, our escrow payment gateway.
- More customers will feel safe when buying online since they will be assured that if they do not receive the goods they purchased they will be refunded.
- Rural
- Poor
- Low-Income
- Middle-Income
- Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations
- 1. No Poverty
- 10. Reduced Inequalities
- South Africa
- Botswana
- Lesotho
- Namibia
- South Africa
- Eswatini
We have not launched yet.
We would like to have 35 million users over the next 5 years and become the default payment solution in Sub Saharan Africa.
- We have to be registered as a third party payment provider in all the countries we would like to operate in and each country has ints own context specific laws.
- We are operating in a trust deficient market, our audience is very likely to think we are scammers when they first here of us.
- We are working with a legal team that works with startups and is helping us navigate the legal landscape.
- We will be offering excellent customer service and talking directly to customers and are hoping this and word of mouth will spread the word about the legitimacy of the company.
- For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Dit not select other.
2 people work on our solution team at the moment, each 40 hours a week.
Dacod was an engineer at an eCommerce agency for 3. years He discovered the majority of South Africans do not trust online stores and prefer Cash On Delivery(COD) or EFT as payment method. But this is costly and risky for merchants. He thus believes Jeenkwa will help provide the necessary security for the growth of eCommerce in South Africa.
Tao studied economics and development and focused especially on South Africa's developing economy and the economics of inequality. Through her studies it became clear to her that informal businesses are a big and important part of the economy but do not have the necessary tools to sustain themselves and/or grow.
We are using Twilio's API for our WhatsApp chatbot and are part of https://pioneer.app's accelerator program.
We are a payments as a platform business.
We will provide wallets directly to customers and our API to businesses and developers as a way to accept payments from our wallet product.
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
- We will charge a low flat rate per transaction x large number of transactions on all peer to peer transactions. (3 ZAR per transaction). We will also charge a withdrawal fee of 2 ZAR for ATM withdrawals.
- We will charge both store and customer a low flat rate per transaction for escrow payment gateway payment (10 ZAR for store and 6 ZAR for customer).
Problem:
1. People do not trust online stores: 54% of customers prefer Cash On Delivery (COD)
2. Existing payment gateways are not suited for SSA
3. Mobile Data is very expensive (SA 2nd highest in the world):
Networks provide cheap/free WhatsApp-specific data.
4. People cannot access online payments: only 23% of the population in SS are unbanked.
Solution:
Our wallet provides a solution to all of these problems, as it has escrow functionality, allows people to interact with it using WhatsApp, is easily integrated with existing online stores and will help new stores launch without needing to provide COD.
- Funding and revenue model
- Legal or regulatory matters
We require funding to get registered as a Third Party Payment provider, Pay salaries for our 2 person team and cover our AWS, banking and Twilio costs.
AWS, we would like to get cloud credits for startups.
Our product aims to provide digital wallets for users that are unbanked because they do not have the relevant identity documents (are not South African) or do not have residential addresses that can be verified by the government.
The majority of our target market are mothers who operate informal businesses.
We are the first to offer a digital wallet to the unbanked/previously excluded community in South Africa. We are the first to create an online payment gateway particularly tailored for users who are currently unable to shop online because they are unbanked or they do not trust online stores.
Co-founder, CEO