Mama Money is the first purely grown South African startup to be licensed as an authorized dealer with limited authority by the South African reserve Bank.
The startup was founded back in 2013, but it officially launched to the public in January of 2015.
After years of research into how to solve problems in different parts of Africa and Asia, the startup has started quickly spreading its services into those areas.
Earlier this year, Mama Money spread into Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania. Currently the startup also sends its services to Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, and even India.
The startup plans to extend next into Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Bangladesh, and Pakistan according to the co-founders of mama Money, Raphael Grojnowski and Mathieu Coquillon.
“We rolled out our product slowly, and improved the product where necessary with regards to client on-boarding, user experience, communication strategies with customers and agents, and customer support,” Grojnowski said, “Low fees coupled with convenient and reliable technology has been very well received by the market.”
Mama Money, at the time of its launch, claimed to be the world’s first social business money transfer operator. As its still operating as a social enterprise, the claim is still backed.
The “soul” of Mama Money’s business lies in its agent network, explained the cofounders. Their agents can be described as low-income individuals who live in their target market. These agents are both sales agents and brand ambassadors.
With the startup launching its own Kiosks just last year, Coquillon said, “Twenty fully-branded kiosks went up in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban. Each kiosk is staffed with a super-agent who is responsible for a team of agents in his or her area.”
Within their select market, the co-founders believe that trust is the most essential factor. Since the inception of their startup, they have put all their effort into gaining the trust of their customers.
“Our agents’ most important job is to build this trust, and their role is a dual one of both sales agents and community influencers. Since our agents are also our target market, their input and engagement is invaluable in developing our products and services,” said Grojnowski.