Hurupay

1.Local Currency Devaluation- Macro forces like inflation, poor GDP outcomes and increase in interest rates cause most local African currencies to weaken against strong currencies. This makes African SMEs to lose money over time when they save money in local currencies. It also makes the cost of supplies(imports) and cost of debt to increase leading to less margins for SMEs. Over time it becomes difficult for SMEs to grow sustainably as margins are reduced.

2.High transaction costs in existing fiat wallets especially for cross-border payments which also makes it hard for SMEs to source for cheaper products hence having to depend on local middlemen who increase prices regularly.

Our market research shows that sub-Saharan Africa has over 44 million SMEs (Kenya has ~7.4M, Ghana has ~2M) in the informal sector (largely offline, cash-based and not digitally connected). 

In Africa, only 4% of SMEs currently accept crypto payments. Majority of existing wallets are consumer-focused and do not cater for businesses to allow them to process crypto payments from customers. Solving this problem presents a $20 billion market opportunity in Kenya and a $10 billion dollar opportunity in Ghana(Still in Infant stages).

Hurupay offers a digital wallet where SMEs can accept stablecoin payments from consumers, save and even access inventory financing while consumers can also make payments to SMEs and save in stablecoins. Additional features include bookkeeping for SMEs, in-app product showcasing and business analytics.

The three main products Hurupay offers are:

1.Hurupay digital iOS app

2.Hurupay Android app

3.Hurupay USSD wallet-for feature phone(keypad phone) users.

*There will be both client and business/SME user interfaces for the products based on user profile each with unique features for each segment.

Product Features

Primary features:

1.Send and receive money in the form of stablecoins for both SMEs and clients.

2.Save money in form of stablecoins for both SMEs and clients.

3.Make stablecoin payments to businesses(SMEs) and organizations.(Client app)

4.SMEs can accept stablecoin payments from clients.

5.SMEs will get a bookkeeping feature to keep track of sales and costs e.g. payments to suppliers.

6. SMEs will also get product showcasing and business analytics features on their apps.

7.SMEs will be able to access inventory financing options based on their transaction history on the wallet.

Additional useful features:

8.Access to wallet financial statements.

9.Bank and mobile money integration for easy cross platform funds transfers.

10.Thanks to the Celo blockchain, wallet owners will enjoy phone number integration to their wallets addresses to enable use of phone number as wallet address.

User Flow:

1. User will Sign Up using KYC information requested.

2. Upon successful sign-up, user will receive a unique wallet address linked to their phone number. This automatically allows them to use their phone number as a wallet address too.

3. Based on user profile(SME or client), user logs in to the suitable platform and enjoys the features mentioned in product overview.

4. Data will be synchronized across both USSD and digital platforms.

Demo Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@hurup... 

Hurupay's solution focuses on the over 40million African SMEs that are pre-dominantly operating within the informal sector of the economy i.e they are not digitally connected and are cash based. Most of these SMEs still practice old-school or no book-keeping at all for their businesses which also makes it hard to keep track of business finances hence struggling to get financing from traditional institutions.

Our solution leverages Stablecoins as an asset class in crypto. Stablecoin payments have the following advantages over web 2 and traditional payment methods:

1.Stability of savings- saving in stablecoins pegged to strong/stable currencies hedges SME owners against losses due to local currency devaluation. It is even possible to receive capital gains from saving in stablecoins.

2.Lower transaction costs- With as low as 3% transaction fees, crypto payments are a much cheaper solution for SMEs and can help owners enjoy higher margins.

3.Shorter payment processing times- traditional payment and remittance solutions take days to process payments while web 3 payments are usually done in a few hours.

4.Self-custodial wallet- Only the wallet owner has access to their wallet through their own private key. This means the owner's fund are safe and secure and only accessible to them.

5.Transparency- All crypto transactions are permanently recorded on the blockchain and are accessible and visible to all. This reduces chances of fraud and misappropriation, a major contributor to SMEs bleeding money and dying.

6. Web 2 Functionalities: 

-We provide book-keeping feature in the SME app which helps them to keep track of sales digitally. The records are helpful in accessing financing and becoming profitable.

-In-app product showcasing and business analytics features helps the SMEs understand product performance as well as advertise new products to consumers directly to consumers.

Community Affiliation

All the three co-founders are Kenyan and have grown in Kenyan communities where they have interacted with SMEs in their daily lives as customers to these businesses. For instance, James' mother is an SME owner. We therefore have first hand experience of the problems SMEs have within underserved communities in Africa.

User-Research

Having interacted with SMEs and conducted prior user research in the form of interviews with our test users about our product, we have come up with the following propositions on how to boost the mass adoption of our web 3 solution with African SMEs:

1. Hurupay Agent Model: We want to leverage existing SMEs to act as our agents to help users be able to on and off-ramp their stablecoins to and from our platforms using fiat money that the SME owners hold. This will help with last mile accessibility of stablecoins.

2. Decentralized academy: This is our educational wing of Hurupay (Formerly called Hurupay academy). The main goal of decentralized Academy is facilitate web 3 education among Africans and helping nurture web 3 talents as well as build web 3 communities. Through Decentralized Academy, we are launching a Programs to conduct crypto education programs for SME owners and university students in Kenya and Ghana.

Training programs will include:

1.How to become a Hurupay Agent.

2.How to save and access credit financing using stablecoins for your SME.

3.Becoming a web 3 developer.

4.Leveraging stablecoin savings for SACCOs.

3. Hurupay USSD platform: To promote last mile accessibility, we are working on building a USSD platform for feature phone users. We realized that a significant number of SMEs still use feature phones for their businesses. By providing a USSD platform, we will be able to offer them all the services that our smartphone users also enjoy.

Academic Background

James Mugambi(B. Economics and Finance-Kenyatta University) is the COO at Hurupay. He has 4 years experience as a design thinking coach supporting innovators develop solutions to social problems. He previously founded Klinbera, a social venture in Kibera Slum dealing with Waste Management at source. Klinbera was incubated under Pangea Accelerator which led to James joining Pangea Accelerator as a Programs associate and entrepreneur in residence helping build stealth startups within the Blue Economy space. James is a certified financial modelling and valuation analyst. 

Philip Mburu (BS Computer Science - Ashesi University) the CEO at Hurupay has previously , Co-founded Usafi Innovations with a team of 3 youths during COVID-19 period. Usafi innovation was building and delivering automated hand washing systems to primary schools and slum communities in Kenya as a response to the pandemic. Philip has 3-year of experience in Blockchain and crypto education. 

Allan Okoth (BS Computer Science) the CTO is a certified full stack blockchain developer with over 4 years experience in mobile app development having worked for various startups in the East African region. (https://github.com/allanokothdev)

We have currently onboarded over 150 active users on the Android consumer platform. Most of our users are University students and business owners within and around Ashesi University, Ghana where Philip Studies and Kenyatta University, Kenya where James studies.

In addition, through our Hurupay Academy Community that we use to educate students and SME owners about decentralized finance and web 3, we have onboarded over 200 members on our telegram and whatsapp communities who attend various educational programs that we organize.

Product Support: 

1. Improving our tech stack.

2. We are looking to integrate mobile money and bank integration for our wallets for easy on and off-ramp.

3. We are also looking to build a Hurupay p2p feature as well as Hurupay agent feature within the apps to enable user easily deposit and withdraw funds.(On and off-ramp)

4. We are also looking to improve the user experience on our products hence we see IDEO design support team as resourceful to help us understand how we can create good User interfaces to improve UX.

Fundraising support: 

1. We need fundraising support will help us source funding opportunities as well as build partnerships to help scale our innovation to support more SMEs.

2. We need to attend an Investor readiness program to help us prepare for private equity/venture capital.

2. We need grant funding to enable us to scale our team and conduct the user/SME onboarding campaign. We will also use this funding to roll out the Hurupay Agent model by training SMEs to become agents as well as provide a liquidity pool for on and off-ramping between stablecoins and fiat.

Training and Mentorship

The access to content and mentors that we can learn from is very valuable to us as we look to improve our operational systems and business strategy as well as become investor ready.

Hurupay is built on the Celo blockchain and facilitates stablecoin transactions.

Our solution leverages Stablecoins as an asset class in crypto. Stablecoin payments have the following advantages over web 2 and traditional payment methods:

1.Stability of savings- saving in stablecoins pegged to strong/stable currencies hedges SME owners against losses due to local currency devaluation. It is even possible to receive capital gains from saving in stablecoins.

2.Lower transaction costs- With as low as 3% transaction fees, crypto payments are a much cheaper solution for SMEs and can help owners enjoy higher margins.

3.Shorter payment processing times- traditional payment and remittance solutions take days to process payments while web 3 payments are usually done in a few hours.

4.Self-custodial wallet- Only the wallet owner has access to their wallet through their own private key. This means the owner's fund are safe and secure and only accessible to them.

5.Transparency- All crypto transactions are permanently recorded on the blockchain and are accessible and visible to all. This reduces chances of fraud and misappropriation, a major contributor to SMEs bleeding money and dying.

6. Integration of mobile money and bank accounts helps with on and off-ramping.

7. The Celo blockchain protocol provides for the use of mobile number as wallet address of users. This prevents the use of long wallet addresses that are common in crypto and very easy to forget or input wrongly.

Our SME focused features bring web 2 functionalities to the web 3 world!

1.Book keeping and Products visibility tools for SMEs

2. Access inventory financing(credit) against savings and sales volume.

3.USSD platform provides inclusivity to feature phone users.

4. Market connection with other suppliers and clients on our App.

Objective 1: Launch fully working Hurupay products, Hurupay SME app and Consumer apps for Android, iOS and Desktop by June 2023

Key results: 

(A)Onboard 5000 SMEs and 10000 consumers by the end of the year 2023. (B)Generate an monthly recurring revenue of $5000 by the end of the year. 

(B) Achieve transaction volumes of $1 million by June 2024(a year after launch) 

(C)Consistently update and revamp the product to improve the user experience based on feedback received. 

(D)Launch our credit financing model for the most loyal SMEs on our platform.

Objective 2: Scaling to Other African Markets

Key Results:

A) Have active operations in Ghana and Kenya by end of 2023. 

(B) Launch Hurupay in Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia by the end of 2024. (C)Break even by the end of 2027.

Objective 3: Increase customer satisfaction through on-time and quality customer support.

Key result: 

(A) Build a customer support team of 5 members in 2023. 

(B)Have a net promoter score of 8

(C) Launch a web 3 community owned customer support platform to receive feedback and offer on-time support for our clients.

1.Net promoter score-how likely users can recommend our app to peers and other people.

2. Customer survey-interviews with customers on their interaction with the product.

3. Appstore and Playstore reviews.

4. Social media engagement-a look at how our users are talking about our product on social media e.g through hashtags and trending topics. Ensuring that customer concerns and feedback are addressed.

5. Hurupay community- we have built a community of over 200 members who help us with product testing and feedback.

1. Improved savings culture by SMEs.- We hope that the features on  our wallets will incentivize SMEs to use it more for savings as well as accessing financing.

2. Wealth creation- By saving in stablecoins, SMEs will avoid losses in value of their savings as a result of local currency devaluation. It is even entirely possible that users will be able to enjoy capital gains by saving in stablecoins as local currencies devalue more.

3. Access to finance- Features such as book-keeping and stablecoins savins will make it easy for SME owners to access financing. Book-keeping will provide records of sales and cashflow, while savings can act as collateral for credit financing. Our future vision is to onboard suppliers and manufacturers to the Hurupay ecosystem and create a value-chain that transacts in stablecoins for economic growth.

4.Boosted sales- through our payment solutions that provide lower transaction costs, coupled with in-app product showcasing and business analytics, SMEs will be able to stock up best performing products as well as connect with consumers who can place orders as well as access offers and discounts.

Our solution is built on the Celo blockchain. we use the celo stablecoin(cUSD) at the moment and are looking to integrate more stablecoins in the future.

Why Celo?

Celo is a blockchain platform that enables decentralized finance (DeFi) applications to be built on top of its network. Celo uses a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm to validate transactions and maintain the integrity of the blockchain.

One of the key features of Celo is its focus on mobile accessibility. Celo is designed to be mobile-friendly, making it easy for anyone with a smartphone to access and use its DeFi applications. This is particularly important for people who do not have access to traditional banking services or who live in regions with limited financial infrastructure.

The Celo dollar(cUSD) is the stablecoin that enables users to transact in a currency that is less volatile than cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. It also provides a way for people to access financial services in regions with unstable or inflationary fiat currencies.

Celo's DeFi applications include decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending and borrowing platforms, and payment gateways. These applications are built on top of the Celo blockchain and use smart contracts to automate transactions and enforce rules.

Celo's focus on mobile accessibility, stablecoin, and DeFi applications makes it an attractive platform for people who want to participate in the global financial system without relying on traditional banking services.

Women SMEs are one of our primary customer segments that Hurupay targets. We believe that by serving women SMEs, we are also serving the community as most women channel their income to supporting their families and dependents. Our products seeks to support women in the following ways:

1. Hurupay Agent Model: We want to leverage existing women SMEs to act as our agents to help users be able to on and off-ramp their stablecoins to and from our platforms using fiat money that the SME owners hold. This will help with last mile accessibility of stablecoins and creating additional revenue stream for them.

2.Decentralized academy: Through Decentralized Academy, we are launching a Women in Blockchain Program to conduct crypto education programs for women SMEs and female students in Kenya and Ghana.

Training programs will include:

• How to become a Hurupay Agent.
• How to save and access credit financing using stablecoins for your SME.
• Becoming a web 3 developer.
• Leveraging stablecoin savings for women SACCOs.

3. Hurupay USSD platform: To promote last mile accessibility, we are working on building a USSD platform for feature phone users. We realized that a significant number of women SMEs still use feature phones for their businesses. By providing a USSD platform, we will be able to offer them all the services that our smartphone users also enjoy.

4. To ensure diversity, we aim to have at least 50% female representation in the Hurupay team as well as at least 5% representation for people living with disabilities.

Our key customers (SMEs)

1. Shop Owners 

2. Grocery Stores

3. Hotels and restaurants

4. E-commerce stores

5. Consumers i.e customers to the SMEs above.

We make money through a Transaction-based business model, where we take a fee on each transaction processed: 

1. Customers Paying SMEs

2. Sending and Withdrawing charges 

3. Capiatl gains commission on savings

4. Interests on Credit Financing

1. Applying for grants and pitching competition.

2. having paying users on our platform.

3. Partnerships with organisations and businesses in need of payment solutions.

4. Pursuing venture capital investment.

5. Running lean until break-even point. e.g by keeping the team small and reducing on ecpenses.

1. We have already raised a $21K grant funding from Prezenti Grants within the Celo foundation network.This has helped us develop our MVPs.
2. We will monetize our platform through the features we offer to users on our apps.
3. In-app marketing revenue.
4. Partnerships with organizations working on financial inclusion to use our products as the payment ramp for communities they want to support with decentralized finance.