Kenya’s Asilimia unveils Digital Payment Platform for SMEs

Asilimia — a fintech platform based in Kenya has unveiled a digital payment platform that will help SMEs access payments. The newly unveiled mobile app will help business owners access payment infrastructure that is tailored to their needs.

Asilimia was founded in 2017 by Tekwane Mwendwa, at a time when he was unable to afford a bus ride home due to the high rate of mobile money withdrawal fees, even with a funded mobile wallet. Mwendwa created Asilimia to provide affordable payment solution. The platform targets micro and small businesses which create 80% of Kenya’s jobs and contributes 40% of the country’s GDP.

Through its android mobile app, Asimilia eliminates tedious registration procedures, thereby granting SMEs access to seamlessly send money, gain insights into their finances, and minimize payment fraud.

Tekwane Mwendwa, the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Asilimia’s said they presently enable M-Pesa to M-Pesa transfers. They are however working on integrating other mobile money providers and banks on their platform. He said they hope to eventually make mobile money transfers entirely free.

In his words, “Despite the tremendously widespread M-Pesa personal accounts across Kenya, Safaricom’s business solutions have to date managed to reach a very small number of customers. We believe that closing this gap does not only represent a tremendous business opportunity but also has the potential to help unbanked and underbanked MSMEs grow and eventually trickle this wealth down to the very bottom of the pyramid.”

Asilimia, in a bid to raise US$500,000, is currently undergoing a funding round. They believe the funding will help them attend to 50,000 users and process one million transactions.