Emmanuel Kimaro is the Founder and CEO of Bizzyn in Tanzania, a successful and profitable startup in Africa.
His charismatic and result-driven approach has been instrumental in the growth and achievements of the company. With a keen vision and a deep understanding of the latest technologies. Emmanuel ensures that Bizzyn stays ahead in this competitive market.
He actively seeks out up-to-date knowledge on different technologies and industry trends, keeping the company at the forefront of innovation. This commitment to staying informed allows Bizzyn to offer cutting-edge solutions to its clients.
Watch the full interview here:
Tell us more about yourself and the journey that led you into entrepreneurship
I’m Emmanuel Kimaro. I was born and raised in Tanzania. I had my education in Tanzania and outside the country. In Tanzania there are different regions and tribes as well.
I’m coming from the northern side of Tanzania, it’s Kilimanjaro and I’m Chaga by tribe. One of our traits is business. We are actually known for doing business from small to large scale so I actually grew up in that environment. So I’ve seen how my parents, family, relatives have been doing different types of business.
So during my degree program in University. I actually had a passion for computers. At that time I did internships in different companies. As part of our curriculum at the university I was placed in different companies. And I saw how cumbersome it was for them to manage their business.
Back home, my family also had a business. So, the same cumbersomeness other companies were facing in terms of managing their finances was the same scenario too. When I went back to the university I was actually trying to see how I could solve the problem that these companies and other SMEs were facing.
I met with my co-founder Abbasi Mussa and then explained to him the challenges I faced in my internship and how the business at home was run there. And he also told me the same when he was placed in his internship that he saw the same.
From there we started creating something to be used by them. So by the time that we finished up our university program we separated for a while. And after I came up with an idea of the project that we actually studied at the university then I said, hey man, we needed to implement it now.
We started working on it and had the first prototype in 2019. And then after we gave it to a few businesses across the country the different companies that we actually did our internships with. So they use it for free. We actually didn’t think about commercializing it at that time.
We also gave it to one of my brother’s companies and other relatives to use it to manage the business. It grew very fast because they were referring to their fellow business owners.
During that time we understood how the market is because we got a lot of positive feedback and lots of things that they wanted us to improve the platform in terms of localizing it based on their needs. It was then that we sat down and decided to do a lot of improvements and then start commercializing it.
At first it was based on desktop supervision and for us it was a little bit cumbersome because we had to move from place to place for installation. It’s by the time we were actually bootstrapping and it was very hard for us. Again we sat down and we started to make it a cloud-based platform.
What challenges did you encounter during the development of Bizzyn and how did you overcome them?
We faced a lot of challenges and I can categorized them in different parts. I will start with the development part. Because we are not having enough funds, enough money to cater to the cost, especially the infrastructure cost, hosting site, and hiring a team.
We were very very small at the beginning and the number of people was actually increasing. So we started spending our own money to handle the transport cost that we need to move from one place to another to train these people on how to use a platform and then after maintaining the infrastructure cost in terms of AWS hosting and those kinds of things.
It was a little bit cumbersome at that time so in terms of cost wise those were the challenges that we faced. As the number of customers increased, we realized that in Africa and especially in some countries, most of the SMEs, these small business owners, are not enlightened when it comes to technologies and adapting to them.
For us it was cumbersome because they see the problem and they actually want to solve the problem but it takes a little bit of time in terms of going there and start training them on how to use a platform. So, you see it was just cumbersome because we moved from one place to another and we were a very small team.
Another challenge was hiring, as a startup, when you’re starting you are doing everything, you’re an accountant, a software developer, a marketer, you do everything by yourself.
At a point I had two business cards – one as the CEO and the other as marketer. Because if you go outside, meet someone and introduce yourself as a CEO, they are like a CEO is coming to pitch (laughs) you know those kinds of things that these people are not serious about.
So I used to have a business card in different ways. In terms of hiring especially in getting a competent team and when it comes to technology. It was a little bit cumbersome because they demand was a bit higher, they need a lot of money to be paid and we were bootstrapping. It was tough to be honest.
Funding is often a challenge. Can you share insights into how you raised capital for your venture?
During the time we were bootstrapping I was working in one of the companies so that I could get some money to boost the business. My family supported us financially but it wasn’t enough for us to move from where we were So I had to look for other sources around.
Before I quitted working with the company and working full time with my company. I was looking at having traction first before we started looking for external investors to invest into the company.
So we actually made sure that our customers were fully satisfied. And I forgot to mention something: one of the challenges that you actually faced is customer support.
We were very few and we needed to support the customers because they were increasing and we actually needed to support them. So it was a bit cumbersome during that time.
We made sure that the customers were always satisfied so that they can refer other people so we could increase the number of users and in terms of financing. So because we were actually charging them in the business subscription model, that’s the B2B subscription model.
We made sure that we got enough customers to use the platform because the large number of customers is proportionate to the money that we will be getting from them. I made sure that the team is competent enough in terms of executing different ideas and solving the challenges of arising from our customers.
And after everything was perfect. We had traction already from different partners that we had onboarded, different companies that we had onboarded.
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We had money coming in though we were not profitable but we were making revenue and then we said okay if you want to expand from where we are to another level then we need an external source of funds.
It was a bit difficult to be honest to raise up fast. So we started crafting our pitch deck based on the milestones that we have achieved and the success that we had. And after that we started looking for investors.
We created a pitch deck which we shared with different angle investors within the country and across the globe. And then we were lucky enough to be among the Adanian Labs Program.
They invested a certain amount which really helped us in terms of GTM, Go to market strategies, hiring a team, restructuring the platform making it more scalable. At that time, to raise funds from investors was a little bit cumbersome to be honest.
Building a customer base is key. What strategies are you employing to establish and grow the customer base of Bizzyn?
Number one thing that I actually did was to look at our competitors and most were foreign companies that were trying to find places in Africa and especially in my country Tanzania.
We studied how their system works and the challenges those people who were using it were facing. So, we created a very user-friendly platform.
Number two, we provided an easier next to customize based on the needs of our customers. Today is too hard to make a call to India or to European countries for them to customize this on what you want.
So, for us as a value added into our platform, we are customizing based on what customers need.
Within our platform we are receiving feedback from our customers so they can share whatever they want to be implemented. Some of them call while some come to the office and then we discuss with them.
Apart from that, it’s something we call cost effectiveness because we understand how much these small businesses are making.
So it would be easier for us if we could make it even more affordable. If a person is paying for instance $5 or maybe $20 for shop rent then if you are charging more than that they won’t be able to pay.
So, we charge them accordingly. Another thing, in different countries there are some regulations. For example in Tanzania, we have Electronic Physical Devices and Receipts for the Tanzania Revenue Authority. Some of these foreign companies are not adhering to these regulations.
It’s a sad event for these small business owners to use their platform. So we provide the on ground originalized support. Most of the big companies are not providing local support but we do.
Another way which actually helped us to acquire customers is that we introduced what we call Revenue Model sharing with resellers.
These resellers resell other softwares,especially foriegn softwares. So we introduced Bizzyn to them. We sat down with them.
We discussed the revenue model and how much they will be getting in terms of percentage so they helped us to make it discoverable to other countries.
For example, in Malawi, we entered into partnership with more than three companies, their resource companies. With Bizzyn, they actually loved it because it’s easier to be used, the support is so amazing.
We scaled up, we went to Kenya, and we did the same. Our goal is after 5 years at least to cover the continent and we will come to Nigeria and see how competitive the market is.
How do you ensure the security and privacy of sensitive financial data within your platform?
One of the things that we don’t mess up with is the security on the platform. So we actually engineered blockchain technologies.
We safeguard our customers’ data in a secured way. This way we make sure that the platform is secured and is trust worth to our customers because they actually put in their finance data and it’s very crucial and as you said.
We took it into that level that the only way that we could make it securable is to move the whole platform into blockchain technology. And that’s what we have been doing.
As Someone with a deep understanding of AI, ML, and IoT. How do you see these technologies shaping the future of business, especially finance, and how is Bizzyn leveraging them to stay ahead in the market?
We understand how fast the word is moving in terms of Machine Learning, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence. We have implemented Artificial Intelligence within our platform.
How it works is that we help these small business owners to understand the best time for them to open their shops, the best hour to do business and the worst hour to do business and that is based on the data that the platform collects for them.
So the platform collects the data and analyze the data and provides easy insights and recommendations to them.
For example, on one part, the part of budgeting, most of these small business owners have their budget. Let’s say yearly budget, monthly budget, departmental budget, marketing budget, expense budget whatsoever.
So the platform reminds them and tells them if this budget is feasible and they are about to reach the expense that the budget that limit they have set.
Apart from that we provide them with the analytics which is easy for them to understand and grab the whole picture.
They can export them in a presentable way so that they can be used as financial guides, and do presentations based on the date. So we are actually moving as fast as possible and as fast as technology takes us.
Marketing plays a vital role. How do you approach marketing, and can you highlight tactics that have been successful for Bizzyn?
I actually tell people that you may have a very nice product but if you fail to market it then it’s worthless. Taking that into account I sat down with the marketing team and we crafted our GTM – Go-To-Market strategies.
How are we going to make our platform and company known to the world? And how are we gonna onboard customers?
So everyone shared whatever they had on their minds and then we came up with a few ways that I believe will work for us. It actually made a lot of sense and apart from that we actually had a sales team on ground.
And the reason why we had a sales team on ground for onboarding customers is we understand how cumbersome it is for these people especially in the African market to understand the importance of a platform.
You can have running adverts on social media and people can see, few of them might click it to understand it if they are interested but majority of them they look at it and they just move on.
We understood our customers’ personae and who we actually were targeting and that made a lot of impact for us. So we said, okay, who is gonna pay for our system, the business people and do they actually stay in their offices?
Some of them the owner is the person who’s in the shop all the time and some of them are not in their business all the time so they have someone to run it.
Our solution is going to help the small business owners to power the financial data, accessing capital, understanding their stock level, understanding what they’re making in a day because most of them are actually using pen and paper, spreadsheets and those kinds of things, which it’s cumbersome.
When we understand our customer personas, let’s have the sales team on ground. Before now, we categorized our customer segment into three parts.
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We have small business owners – the ones who are having shops in the malls, retailers in different Industries let’s say pharmaceutical, fashion, clothing, construction.
We have medium, they are not small or large companies. Their revenue range is from 10,000 monthly to 100,000 in a year as revenue and most of these owners can easily be found in the office.
But for the small, we might find a person who has been employed to manage it. The third category is the large companies and most of the owners can easily be found in the office all the time.
The challenges were when the sales team went to the small business.
They were not finding the owners in their shops and the person who manages the shop or supermarket doesn’t want to use the system because they’re stealing from their boss and they will just say okay, I will talk to our boss blah blah.
For these small business owners we used adverts. For instance, I’m the owner of the shop and I have different small businesses that I’m running and people are stealing from me.
I don’t even know the stock level of my products. These kinds normally give us a call and they request we go to their shops to train their sales team.
The sales team also did the same when they went to the medium and the large and there was no problem because most of the owners you find in the office.
It’s easy to close the deal very fast. The decision is made within a minute if they really need the platform. So the marketing strategy that we had were those three but the main thing we have to take is to understand customers’ persona and that will really make a lot of sense for us to go to them and find them.
Here’s one simple example, let’s say you’re running a microfinance and you are giving loans to the restaurant owners and then you are going in the morning or in the afternoon to collect.
It’s hard because they are busy cooking, But if you go in the evening, it’s easy for them to pay. So actually understanding the customer’s persona makes a lot of sense in terms of setting your marketing strategies.
Speaking of the Tigo Innovation Program won by Bizzyn. How has the program helped Bizzyn in the market?
Tigo is one of the light telecom companies here in Tanzania and they have offices in different countries in Africa.
Their support is gonna have a huge impact on Bizzyn in different ways. Number one, Tigo is gonna provide us with a large customer base. One of our packages is that Bizzyn will be interfacing with Tigo’s platform.
For the SMEs who are using Tigo they will also be able to use our platform. That means we are going to acquire the customer base of Tigo so that’s huge for us. Number two, Tigo will support us in terms of customer support so if someone dials *150*001 can request support from Tigo.
Because if we grow fast it means that we are receiving lots of calls from our users and we will actually need support, our team won’t be able to accommodate all. But Tigo will provide that for us and it’s good.
Apart from that Tigo is now owned by Action Group, they bought Tigo in Santeria in Tanzania. So they also have an investment side and they invest in startups.
They have invested in one of the startups here in Tanzania and we are also in discussion for them to invest into our company. These are the support that Tigo will be providing for us.
You love reading technical articles and engaging in sports and adventure. How do these interests influence your leadership style and decision-making within the business context?
I’m a huge fan of Elon Musk, I have read lots of his books. So when I was in the US, I visited his company simply because I like the way the guy thinks – his critical thinking is something that I love.
Honestly, I’m very crazy when it comes to ideas and to see them become a reality. I tell my team every day that we are here to solve every single problem a small business owner faces no matter what.
Whether that makes a lot of sense or doesn’t make a lot of sense. We’re gonna be seen as the stupidest people but let’s do it as long as it helps take them from one state to the other.
Before this year ends we’re coming up with something, might not be done but of course it’s something that will have a huge impact in terms of business.
I mean in supporting small businesses. So it’s actually something that we are coming up with. So me reading different articles and how they impact my leadership style is that I like to see things in a different angle and try to implement it.
It’s not having an idea but how I’m gonna make the idea work. And I tell my team it doesn’t matter what kind of idea you have but how long will it take you to execute the idea.
Because if we think of doing something and you don’t do it then it’s nothing. It’s how quick we are able to execute it, and that actually places us in the forefront. If a customer is making a call requesting for new features to be added then you are taking two or three months to implement those features.
It will impact your business. That way we execute ideas as soon as we can. I don’t like people who are complaining. I like people coming with solutions. That has been my mantra.
Maintaining a positive and productive work environment is crucial. Can you share some specific practices you have implemented to foster collaboration and a positive culture within the Bizzyn team?
First, it started within ourselves. I can give you one example, when we were bootstrapping we were working up to 10 pm in the night then evetyone goes home. We were actually working very hard at the time.
And I remember one book that I read, I don’t know if it was Steve Jobs that wrote it but it says if you wanna do a lot of things it’s much better for you when you don’t have other responsibilities to take care of.
I’m talking about the family issues, the funny things and when you are energetic and have someone who’s understanding what you’re doing then it adds a lot.
For our team to stay productive and maintain good mental health, we actually have different activities that we do. We have Team Network.
Sometimes we go outside the office to work. Sometimes we have Team Picnic. So we go to different places to refresh. Sometimes we have boot camps in different regions so we can stay there for a week.
We try to change the environment to make people have more energy.
We’re coming to Tanzania to join your team
(Laughs) You’re welcome. Getting the team culture is something amazing and it makes every person understand what’s supposed to be done. And he does it with minimum supervision. Team culture is actually everything and makes people see the big picture with you. And that adds a lot of value to them. So they feel happy being part of the company.
Considering the rapidly evolving technology landscape. How is tech revolutionizing the way businesses handle their finance? And how does Bizzyn stay ahead of the curve to incorporate the latest advancements?
Technology has revolutionized business especially in terms of finance. We have actually seen lots of new technologies coming up.
And I agree with you that the new technologies have revolutionized the finance infrastructure, finance business in Africa and in Tanzania to be precise.
For instance, we have lots of local companies and international companies that are tapping into the finance sector.
We have seen different companies like DPO, Nala, which is a money transferring platform. We have seen Bank of Tanzania issuing financing license to these big companies to leverage the technology that they have in terms of financing.
So, it’s something that is actually coming fast. And I have seen different companies especially in terms of microfinance, the ones that provide cheap loans. They have moved from the local way.
They have digitized it so that they have different apps people can just go in and ask for loans. So it’s something that these companies have tapped into technology.
For us at Bizzyn, we have not stayed behind so we have moved into blockchain technology. We have moved into AI and we have seen the huge impact.
Now, the customers are happier than before. Because the platform tells them when to sell, when to buy whenever the purchase is over. It’s predicting the future of their business. Where it will be in the next month or years based on the data that they have fed into the platform.
Also, we have actually introduced what we call an alternative way to credit scoring infrastructure. We understand how important it is for these small business owners to have access to working capital.
Because most of these banks and other financial institutions were relying on paperwork and credit history to provide working capital to these SMEs. And as we all know, the way these small business owners keep their financial data is not as much easier as these big companies.
They are using pen and paper to record their transactions. We provided them with an easy-to-use platform where now they keep the data. After we use the same data that the platform collect for them to provide them with working capital within Bizzyn platform.
So you see how impactful the technology is and how we are adapting to it in helping these small business owners of obtain financial data, have access to working capital and easy bootstrapping their business from one stage to another stage.
As a founder, what do you see as the future of Bizzyn? And how do you envision it continuing to benefit businesses in the long run?
In three to five years to come we want to at least have presence in the East Africa countries. And after we would consider going to other countries in the continent.
So we are having over 5,000 customers so far in Tanzania.
Small businesses are using the platform today and the number is increasing. With the partnership with Tigo we believe that the number will triple. And that would be a huge impact for us.
Since that we are helping the business owners to digitalize their business and to access working capital that they were actually lacking before.
I envision Bizzyn to become the number one cloud platform in the financial management platform in Africa. So that’s where we’re heading to. We have started challenging the big companies in the market, the foreign companies.
And now I envision to see Bizzyn to be the number one Cloud Accounting and Financial Management Platform in Africa. So that’s what we actually aiming to. But to reach there in the three to five years. We plan to cover the sub-Sahara countries fast and there after we move to the rest of the continent.
Is Bizzyn for both individuals and businesses?
Only for businesses.
What piece of advice can you can to Africans looking to start their businesses?
Starting a business is not an easy thing. It has a lot of ups and downs. And it needs a person who is committed, not one leg in, one leg out. You need to be fully into it. You need to be fully committed to succeed in business.
Second, build something that will address the pains of people. It starts with understanding the people that will use your product.
Third, be consistent, and don’t give up because of the challenges that come with running a business. Keep building especially towards the area that the world is moving to. Keep learning and implementing.
Don’t be stagnant on the things you know. Open your mind to see how things are done in different ways. And see how you can implement it into your business.
Another thing I see in Africa among startups, they think they are building for investors. Investors are not your customers so you need to build something for your customers.
Investors will come, build something that will serve your customers, that’s where your focus should be, not on investors.
If you make money with your customers and when investors come, the negotiating terms will be in your favour. But if you’re building for the investors, you are likely to die, because it’s not something that customers need.
To find out more about Emmanuel Kimaro and Bizzyn in Tanzania. Visit the company’s website and social media platforms:
