As a Fintech company in Kenya 🇰🇪 you have to be wary of Banks 🏦
Kenyan banks typically let startups experiment with different products, create the market and then they swoop in and launch similar products /n
Kenyan banks typically let startups experiment with different products, create the market and then they swoop in and launch similar products /n
For example I captured this Lipa pole pole product by KCB bank yesterday at an Apple store
Some form of lending/hire purchase for electronic and retail items
Some form of lending/hire purchase for electronic and retail items
KCB bank also has a similar partnership with retailer Choppies Kenya 'Lipa Kidogo Kidogo' pictured here
Now, unless I am mistaken, Fintech lenders Aspira and LipaLater popularized this sort of extended credit for electronics and retail goods. Catch is they both charge interest
Thing is it is tough for Fintech lenders to compete with banks on lending products b/c Banks have mobilized Kenyan deposits at low cost (
Banks pay roughly 7% on deposits per year
Banks lend at 7% per month with the same deposits
Banks pay roughly 7% on deposits per year
Banks lend at 7% per month with the same deposits
Fintech's need to be strategic if all their 'innovative products' can just be copied and re-modelled by banks
How will Lipa Later and Aspira survive in the long term if all the banks can just wake up and sign up the same merchants with better rates??
this is exactly what happened with unsecured consumer lending
Tala, Branch et al have popularized mobile loans but at exorbitant rates
Banks have now flipped the tables and now offer similar products - Timiza, HF whizz - but at lower monthly interest rates
Tala, Branch et al have popularized mobile loans but at exorbitant rates
Banks have now flipped the tables and now offer similar products - Timiza, HF whizz - but at lower monthly interest rates
And even gone as far as to lobby for new laws to control digital lenders
So when i witnessed this pitch by Anyi Health at Antler last week on mobile credit for healthcare, i wondered to myself,
"How do you plan to ward off the banks when you prove that there is money to be made in lending for healthcare?"
"How do you plan to ward off the banks when you prove that there is money to be made in lending for healthcare?"
This is why I am a big fan of radical technology like Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies because it flips the tables against the banks
