We're Breaking Down Barriers to Unlock Every Person's Potential
Let’s face it: Our financial system is rigged in favor of the wealthy.
Think about it… What has your bank done for you lately?
We recently surveyed 356 people and 99% said that their bank doesn’t help them make smart moves like reducing debt, increasing income, making smart investments, and minimizing tax.
But here’s the Big Banks’ dirty secret: They DO help their rich customers make these moves. It’s called “private banking” and banks reserve their best products and services exclusively for wealthy customers.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves.
Personal finance is complicated, with lots of math, confusing jargon, & fine print. Regular working Tanzanians don’t have the expertise (or time) to make the best moves with their money.
Here’s the good news: Help is on the way.
A revolution has begun and StartUp Fund Africa or SFA is leading the way. We’re reimagining what banking could be and we’re doing it together — as a community of people who want to get ahead.
SFA is registered as a Savings and Credit Co-operative (SACCO) whose main objective is to mobilize savings from members and in return provide capital funding facilities. Using our proprietary FinTech platform and a modern twist on the barter system, we provide members with access to much-needed capital and a new community of incentivized customers.
Our mission is to make money moves of the rich available to everyone.
We have the backing of our entire small business network. Together we can do things that we can’t do by ourselves. Together we’re wealthy and powerful and we can make the same money moves as the wealthiest people.
In the words of our members, here’s WHY SFA is the right SACCO to be part of...
We founded SFA to change the system. It’s our mission to make the best money moves available to everyone. Individually we may not be wealthy (YET), but together we are and we can make big moves together.
Here's How It Got Started.
Every organization has a history. And we do, too. But nothing captures the humble beginnings, the journey, and the vision of SFA.
This is how it all began…
The concept behind Starter Fund came to life as a result of heightened frustration and fortunate timing. During the second year of running the on demand delivery business, Lusabara and Dr. Joseph, who co-founded BraiWeb Tech Ltd, were faced with a precarious financial situation. As many are well aware, during the early years of running business most of the start-ups are struggling financially. No stranger to that same reality, Lusabara and his co-founder were also impacted significantly.
Due to financial hardship, a company board member approached Lusabara looking for funds. Faced with being asked to raise at least $260k. So he visited some of they so called "Start Up hubs" and or "Agencies" to get at least guidance and VC recommendations and guess what...? He ended up with zero 🤔 He then visited more than five major banks and other MFIs to find a way to seamlessly lend money for their business in a simple and easy manner.
After tireless visits, to almost all of them... they asked him for at least 18% to 24% of loan interests.
It quickly became evident that no robust solution existed which solved their needs. So with no solution to the problem they faced, instead of settling for the archaic process of manually creating and documenting a loan themselves, Lusabara took it upon himself to create the solution to that problem. After 794 days of work, countless discussions with startups and lenders, more than half a million lines of code written, and too many sleepless nights, the solution Lusabara needed came to life, then Starter Saving & Capita Fund or "SFA" was born.
We fight for financial fairness and empower members to build a better future.
The time is right for SFA: between the ever-evolving power of smartphones, a growing fascination with alternative currencies, and a newfound interest in small businesses supporting each other, SFA is perfectly positioned for exponential growth, NOW.
Our Team. 🤯
A growing team comprised of world-renowned entrepreneurs, technology moguls, thought leaders, marketing experts, and innovative minds. From our advisors (Board of Directors) to the individuals working daily on the growth of SFA, each member of our team is well-equipped with the knowledge and tools necessary to make any new venture a smashing success.
SFA wants to change the system and reimagine what banking could be, and it all starts with our community—thousands of like-minded people like you who want to work together to make smart money moves. Together we’re rich and can make the same moves as the wealthiest, smartest people!
Who's SFA Member
We simply want to make it safe, simple, and easy for members to make savings and borrow 3 times their savings. With SFA, members have the ability to conceptualize, create, generate, plan, and execute loan agreements without dealing with complicated legal forms.
Business owners and employee is a potential member of our community. Whether an individual is searching for a way to maximize their chances of starting a business or struggling startup business is seeking to raise capital for their business, or perhaps a single mother is looking to get funds to cover unexpected expenses, whatever the use case may be, Starter Fund aims to service each one of those needs and more.
Our Opportunity 💡
The market we aim to service is huge.
Our market assessment revealed that less than 5% of Tanzanian SACCOS are currently offering financial services through mobile wallets. Instead, most SACCOS still rely on in-person cash repayments of loans and bank deposits.
We wanted to change that.
We need a solution for our time.
With an estimated $387 million US dollars moving between SACCOS every year, across the nation, we understand that the problem we are solving is massive. With such a massive market in mind, and little to no competitors at all servicing this industry, we felt as though it was the perfect time for SFA to place its mark on the fintech market, and ultimately service this ailing industry.
Our Execution ⚡
We built SFA to be the safest, easiest, and most robust platform to invest, create, and manage loans between members. We’ve partnered with some nationally recognized banks like CRDB, NMB, and Equity to manage funds easily.
Our platform can comfortably scale to 20 Million users without any additional need for optimizations, capital injection, code changes, or employees. In under 10 minutes, members can come to our platform, apply for loans, agree upon our terms, sign their documents, and boom. With all of this in mind, we charge a single-digit interest rate. Members can use our platform to organize, pay back, and invest whenever the time is right for all parties involved.
Every great product has to find a way to make money to be truly special. Even though we made our platform easily accessible to the masses, for us, making money goes hand-in-hand with how we view our success.
We plan to scale, grow, and expand quickly. With this expansion will come increased revenue, and with more revenue will come economies of scale, and with economies of scale, will come impact & prosperity as a SACCO.
Our Results ✍️
Since our launch, reactions toward SFA have been nothing but positive. Nearly 98% of people who have interacted with our platform have described it as a “great idea”, “I love it”, “amazing”, “I would like to be a member”, “so easy to use” or “transformative”. Furthermore, our initial launch results totaled over 174,000 unique social media & website impressions in only one month. From the outside looking in, almost everyone believes in the vision and idea behind StartUp Fund.
From an impact perspective, on average 500 people visit our website each and every day, oftentimes taking the time to learn about who we are, what we are doing, and how they can use our services and reading our blog. Alongside the fact that people are finding our platform mostly through organic means, we’ve also turned some heads in regard to the innovations we’ve made from a technology perspective.
Throughout the next couple of years or so, we will be working with the COSOTA Patent and Trademark Office to solidify the details of our invention and hopefully achieve full grant status.
Our Competition 🏁
On a national scale, SFA is a first-of-its-kind, one-and-only innovation.
However, when we survey country-specific solutions, SFA has a few competitors we like to keep our eye on.
Some of our competitors you may have heard of, others may be SACCOS from employees of government institutions, corporations, authorities, corporate banks, etc... but regardless of its size, we very much respect and see ourselves working alongside to capture the needs in our market. The existence of competition in our space helps us provide proof of product-market fit and better solidifies the potential for StartUp Fund’s growth in the future.
So what makes us special?
Community banks and SACCOs are losing millions of customers annually. 90% of Tanzanians manage their finances manually and expect their bank to provide an engaging mobile experience. For smaller financial institutions with limited tech budgets and expertise, they can’t offer a web and or mobile app capable of competing with mega banks or online-only neo-banks. These institutions have aging customers, and because of tech deficiencies, are struggling to attract younger ones.
Strong Savers = Good Borrowers
The data SFA captures empowers borrowers to prove they're trustworthy through healthy financial choices, not just debt, and presents lenders with a more complete risk profile. We’ve created a lender-agnostic score, called the SFA Savings Score, which we plan to bring to the lending market as a complement to the credit score in future years.
Tried and true, and shiny and new
We are continually adding new and innovative features to the SFA platform. From the ability to invest points and rewards on your loans to the freedom members have in regards to making payments on or off of our platform, we listen to our members.
Below are a few highlights that describe the reasons why Starter Fund is the best solution in our industry servicing the interpersonal, relationship-based, loan space.
- We are the only SACCO that combines FinTech, AdTech, MarTech, and social good for a powerhouse solution for startups.
- For customizable loans specifically, we are the most affordable option for our members.
- We are the only national platform compared to our competitors.
- We can move money on our platform using any form of payment. Direct bank connections, credit, debit, cash, BTC, ETC, and etc. check are all accessible with Starter Fund. We also allow our users to use mobile money payments, and other competitors to move money outside of our platform; we simply track those payments accordingly.
Our Vision 🔮
Picture a world where success is within reach for anyone who wants it. A world where creativity, innovation, and good old-fashioned hard work are the keys to unlocking a life of abundance and fulfilment. This is the world we see, and it's the one we're working to create. Our vision is to be the ultimate resource for entrepreneurs who are serious about taking their businesses and their lives to the next level.
With our market size in mind, and lack of fierce competition at the moment, if Starter Fund can capture just 30% of the total $387 million dollar Tanzania market we will have reached a comfortable $116 million dollar valuation. As we consider the national reach of Starter Fund, this number quite obviously has the potential to increase.
Ultimately interpersonal loans boil down to two simple realities – members just want to get their money back, and on the other hand, they want an easy & convenient way to access funds in a time of need. We can create a world in which Starter Fund is the platform of choice for funding out money because it is simple, safe, affordable. If we can convince the national’s small businesses that Starter Fund is the most advantageous place for them, then we’ve won the battle.
Our Values
Our values define who we are and what we stand for. We believe in being fearless, innovative, and results-driven.
- We believe in being fearless, innovative, and results-driven.
- We believe in treating our team members and customers like family, and in always putting their needs first.
- We believe in being honest, transparent, and authentic in all our dealings, and in building lasting relationships based on trust and mutual respect.
- We believe in having a great time and enjoying every moment, and in taking calculated risks and pushing the envelope to achieve breakthrough success.
Our commitment to excellence is unwavering, and our passion for making a difference is what drives us every day.
Risks
- The fundamental concept of SFA could be copied and executed by pre-existing large co-operatives and prove to take away market share from our company.
- The SFA may never receive a future equity financing or elect to convert the Securities upon such future financing. In addition, the Company may never undergo a liquidity event such as a sale of the Company or an IPO. If neither the conversion of the Securities nor a liquidity event occurs, the Purchasers could be left holding the Securities in perpetuity. The Securities have numerous transfer restrictions and will likely be highly illiquid, with no secondary market on which to sell them. The Securities are not equity interests, have no ownership rights, have no rights to the Company’s assets or profits and have no voting rights or ability to direct the Company or its actions.
- Our future success depends on the efforts of a small management team. The loss of services of the members of the management team may have an adverse effect on the company. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in attracting and retaining other personnel we require to successfully grow our business.
- Increased regulation in the interpersonal loan / promissory note space could serve to negatively affect the business model of SFA. It operates in and depends on the loose laws pertaining to promissory notes between consumers. Any increased regulation will serve to add additional overhead costs to SFA.
- A tight spread as it relates to how much it might cost to acquire a member in relation to how much revenue a customer provides could pose to make it difficult to scale quickly. At scale, and with our current revenue models, SFA will make $1.03 for every $1.00 we spend. If our revenue model does not change to include additional sources of revenue in the future, we may not generate enough cash flow to sustain the business long term relative to our costs.
- Horizontal expansion of the SFA platform in regards to new features, use of new technologies, or new partnerships may never exceed the current state of the art. The base technology focused on peer-to-peer connections between individuals is the entire driving force behind this business concept. Other additional features to SFA may prove to be unsuccessful or even detrimental to the business, so expansion of long-term features are not guaranteed.
- Our payment processing capabilities are dependent solely upon a special piece of technology created by MNOs. In the event that SFA would no longer be able to use MNOs, SFA could suffer significant financial losses in dealing with the aftermath of such a reality. Very few players outside of MNOs exist for SFA to migrate to in regards to powerful payment processing.
- Legal documents which serve as a product on SFA have been vetted to a "best effort" standard. SFA is not a licensed legal entity and thus any documentation we provide cannot be guaranteed to be held up in every court in every jurisdiction across the world. Seeking out professional legal counsel in addition to using SFA may be required for our customers, and in most cases is even advised.
- SFA exists in a single-tenant, serverless cloud architecture. The trade off for using such advanced technology is that our ecosystem has as a single point of failure in regards to potential data or privacy breaches. In the event that SFA' security safeguards and/or encryption mechanisms fail, user data such as email address, first name, and last name may be exposed.
- As an innovative SFA seeking to disrupt many financial products, we may in the future engage with, create, and/or distribute new products leveraging a wide array of blockchain technology.
