Findit.ke is new business directory in Kenya aimed at helping businesses connect to their customers as well as maintain an online presence with ease has raised $200,000 from undisclosed investors to fill that gap.
Like the defunct Mocality, Findit signs up businesses-both online and offline and allows them to showcase their products and services as well as connect with their customers online. Findit is not the first app to be launched locally after the demise of Mocality and Google’s GetMyBusinessOnline and a similar platform for classifieds called GoogleTrader.
The listing or business directory business model has never sustained any business locally followed by the classifieds business which saw Naspers’ backed OLX close shop across Africa. Findit will need to sign up volumes of businesses and rake in substantial revenues to sustain itself.
According to the founders, Viral Shah and Jay Sandhu,” Our Clients (businesses) can actually showcase their products & service offerings. At the end of the day when a user searches for a specific business, he wants to know what products are being offered. Getting contact information is too basic, that’s all our competition is offering.”
The platform attracts users by having continuous deals on the platform, from travel to dining, Furniture to Lamp Shades and many more. The platform claims to have over 200+ business listings at the moment and is routing to grow the number by the day.
Currently, the firm is in the process of Developing a mobile app where users will be able to make reservations or bookings with businesses. The firm expects to market this feature to restaurants when it’s ready. The booking feature might as well work with hospitals and several other services providers in the market but the team has a lot of working pushing for sign ups and adoption.
“We raised $200,000 as seed investment to get the venture started in August 2018. We will also be going for our Series A in the near future to expand into the full east African market over the course of one year,” said Viral Shah.