Tozzaplus was recently named among the startups that will receive the Pangea Accelerator funding. The startup was shortlisted alongside Onesha and Biashara Bot. We had an interview with Paul Kimani, the C.E.O./Co-founder of Tozzaplus. He spoke about Tozzaplus and the Pangea Accelerator funds. Excerps
Can you tell us about Tozzaplus and what it has to offer Kenyans?
TozzaPlus is a cloud-based end to end payroll built for the African market but initially operating in Kenya. Our solution has 3 main modules:
*Time and Attendance
This module helps businesses track employees’ time-in and time-out records, set up shifts, approve leaves and overtime requests, and create attendance reports. This is done via mobile Apps, Web Portal and biometric devices. TozzaPlus lets employees clock in or out using biometric devices to ensure the correct employee is at the right workplace at the right time. This effectively eradicates costly ghost employees and buddy punching and cuts down needlessly manual and labour-intensive time and attendance reconciliation.
*Payroll
TozzaPlus Payroll provides a paperless cutting-edge solution for biometric time and attendance, employee management and automated payouts. Our system allows employers to pay their teams effortlessly; with guaranteed accuracy and on time. TozzaPlus Payroll can be accessed from anywhere, reducing delaying of employees’ salaries and benefits.
*Payout
TozzaPlus Payouts allows employers to disperse payments directly to employees’ mobile wallets or bank accounts without uploading text files containing payout instructions, therefore, removing the risk brought about by human error and fraud. Our Payout system is linked directly with our payroll thus ensuring you pay the right people the accurate amount. Employees will receive their pay conveniently on their Mpesa accounts or bank accounts.
What is the motivation for setting up Tozzaplus?
For the last 3+ years, we have have been building enterprise solutions for SMEs geared towards making them run efficiently and professionally. In our interaction with these companies, we saw the need in helping them track, manage, and pay their employees hassle free. Our motivation is to create a world where employees are empowered.
How will you describe the reception of Tozzaplus by Kenyans so far?
We finished our beta testing in January 2018 and to-date we have more than 70 Small and Medium businesses using our solution. The journey is still in its infancy but we are making good progress.
Tozzaplus was selected as one of the startups to receive funding from Pangea Accelerator. What do you have to say about the this and what will the funds be used for?
Pangea Accelerator has been a very good experience for us as a business. We got to get opportunities to meet great speakers, mentors and leaders from different fields. We were even able to meet potential partners in Liquid Telcom and BDO East Africa. The funds will mostly be used in improving our sales department and enhance our product. We project to onboard 2,000 business by end of 2020 in Kenya before venturing into other African markets in 2022.
What are the challenges of running your startup in Kenya? Where do you see TozzaPlus in the next five years?
Running a start-up has many challenges, not only here in Kenya but the world over. Our biggest challenge so far has been brand awareness and recognition. People in this part of the world seem to trust a brand they have seen or heard before. This is, however, changing via our aggressive branding activities. We are also having very key partnerships going forward and this will also help us with this. Our solution is built for the African Market and we plan to start our journey of entering outside Kenya in 2022. In 5 years’ time, we plan to have set up in at 3 other African markets i.e Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
How will you describe the Kenyan startup space?
It’s not a secret that Kenyan start-up space is one of the most vibrant in Africa and this is due to the fact that Kenyans are a hard-working lot. As a people, we believe in doing things ourselves rather waiting for someone else to do it. Kenyans are aggressive in nature. We are hustlers. This is not only in business but in almost all the fields (maybe apart from football ).
The government has played its role in improving the ease of doing business. Currently its super easy to register and start running a business in Kenya. We are not there yet, but personally, I believe we are making progress.
What advice do you have for budding entrepreneurs?
My advice to anyone out there running a business is to never give up. I know it might sound like it’s a cliché but it’s the naked truth. Every day as an entrepreneur you are faced by situations that force you to not only question your business model/idea but also your own capabilities. The secret is to NEVER GIVE UP!
