M-Kazi Closes Shop

M-Kazi Closes Shop

Trending stories online on Technology in Kenya indicate that M-Kazi is closing shop.

Kenya’s M-Kazi is an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) job application service connecting job seekers to employers. The start-up had a team that included the co-founders Nancy Tingze Wang, Lino Carcoforo and Mem Maina seen in the photo below.


M-Kazi "had negotiated key contracts and service level agreements with major telecoms in Kenya, conducted in depth market research and acquired 30,000 users, leveraging grass roots marketing campaigns to generate viral customer acquisition." according to a story carried by Techmoran.

Initial discussions seemed to imply that the organization closed due to embezzlement of funds by one of the founders. However, Lino Carcoforo wrote a clarification later indicating that the startup closed for the following reasons, in his words:

"1. Billing issues with Safaricom - Having negotiated rates through craft silicon to ensure better margins on SMS and USSD, mkazi was not able to bill safaricom directly due to a lack of a tripartite agreement.

2. Lack of cash flow due to not being able to bill

3. Discrepancy between mkazi system sms sent and safaricom delivery reports.

4. Failure to close subsequent funding as a result of not showing adequate growth in user acquisition -again, directly tied to lack of marketing spend."

Indeed, M-Kazi stood a chance to succeed in a place where m-everything seems to succeed. With millions of job-seekers on the market fueled by availability of mobile phones.

This means BrighterMonday and a host of other smaller similar ventures will continue to dominate the market.