Watu, a financial services company, has evolved from a small startup with a vision to increase efficiency in African credit markets to a significant player impacting millions of lives by providing accessible financing for income-generating assets and technology.
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When we started 2015, we were very small
team. What was started with myself,
Philip, Benson and Omar and Agra joined
a little bit later. So we can say five
people with the idea to bring uh more
technology, more efficiency into African
credit space. We had no idea what what
is Africa. We had no idea what credit
space really means. And I would say it
was a very big blessing because we
[music] had a chance to start from from
scratch from zero with a with a let's
say open blank page and and literally uh
not to be guided by some pre perceptions
[music] how things should be should be
working. And because we didn't have that
history and experience,
we came with idea to give credit to
every person who is [music] ready to to
to to take a credit and and actually
willing to pay back. [music]
on 15th June 2015 is when now I joined
officially and by that time we did not
have an office. [laughter]
I was working in a small space in an
apartment in Mombasa. We were only two
of us me and a colleague from Denmark. I
remember very well when uh the day the
CEO told us that this company I wanted
to grow to have a portfolio of over $100
million. I was like what? We've just
started. We don't have an office. He's
talking of he's talking big. How can
that be possible? That night I did not sleep.
I still remember the small room [music]
in Mombasa when we started the company
10 years ago. We were just a handful of
people doing everything and issuing
loans to women groups in coastal region.
um was introduced to Wu in 2017. [music]
I really liked the idea. I thought the
underserved if they're given the
opportunity they will repay and if they
When [music] we were first able
to go to a a bank and say to the bank,
[music] this is what we're doing. this
is our plan and we want to borrow some
money from you and uh we managed to
convince them and [music] repaid and
borrowed and repaid and borrowed and
continued to do so. [music] So I think
that was the game changer. It gave us
the confidence to [music] say we can do
it. We can present ourselves to you know
the formal financial [music]
institutions without security. We just
had a small loan book. the values and
principles which we lay there customer
[music] first customer centric customers
our boss I think we have managed to keep
it and even enhance it so I'm very happy
[music] I certainly would also want to
thank our funding partners because they
were the ones who believed in [music]
Watu 7 years ago they were the ones who
helped us to boost the business and
start growing
forced us [music] to improve our
governance structures, our product,
implement consumer protection measures
[music] and they made us to be a better
version of ourselves. It was so amazing
how team managed to build this startup
[music] to the scale. How people managed
to build the team around Kenya and
beyond in East Africa. [music]
The DNA back at the time was empower
entrepreneurs uh bringing border
community [music] affordable solution in
terms of finance and uh then it changed
to [music] smartphone financing another
chapter uh another turning moment of uh
building new success [music] story which
is now transforming the water DNA by
large so it's amazing to see how we are
able to adapt in this setup and [music]
this environment which is not so easy to
operate in but at the same time It's
always interesting. Today, I think we're
knocking on 4 million customers. When
you look at the number of customers
we've gained in a relatively short
period of time, you can understand
[music] how many people we financed, how
many lives we we've improved either
through border finance, tuk tuk
financing or even phone financing. 40%
of the people have reported a growth in
[music] income. So, that's huge. Uh, and
of course providing livelihood through
the border borders, which is an income
generating asset. Tuk [music] tuk
through an income generating asset. I
mean, that's very very significant. And
I think when I look at that, it's it's
serving the underbanked. So it's a very
working with Watu has been a very
impactful [music and clears throat]
journey. Um Watu has managed to put
Samsung products in the hands of the
traditionally unbanked by creating
affordability. Watu is really at the
backbone of the 4G [music] migration. A
lot of uh Watu customers new 4G uh users
collaboration with Wu has enabled us
scale faster uh because we provide the
product and what to provide uh access to
[music] affordable financing which has
enabled uh the ease in terms of adoption
of electric vehicles. two or three years
ago, EV maybe was [music] going to be
something that took off and Watu was
really pioneering in backing us and
making [music] that transition a
possibility. They really recognized that
we needed to invest in battery swapping
infrastructure [music] in our case to
enable then the large volumes of
motorbikes to be to be sold. And it's
that strategic view [music] that shows
how we can grow together which really
been key to our relationship as a dealer
for Watu [music] and uh being an inclusive
inclusive
uh financial. It has really helped me to
develop my business and it has made
[music] us to grow from working in
Nairobi to covering the entire [music]
country plus plus Uganda.
>> Wu has been a very supportive partner to
listen to the dealers and partners.
[music] Wu respond to their concerns. I
think that has been the most exciting
[music]
our customers, none of this would be
possible. And obviously our team,
[music] the 3,000 plus people that come
in every day, the resilience that they
have, the creativity that they have, and
just the get done mentality,
[music] attitude that's taking us to new heights.
>> I think we are a disruptor.
We are [snorts]
giving access [music] to the next
billion and we are making a lot of
change in [music] people's lives.
Our expansion is not only [music] is not
only geographical. Geographical of
course it's a big part and we know we
know how to do it. We are actively doing
and we want to grow over all continents
really really [music] waiting for uh for
our expansion over the next products and
um how we can engage our clients [music]
>> from all of us at Samsung. [music] We
wish you a happy 10 year anniversary and
uh in the next chapter we wish you more
growth and prosperity.
>> Happy 10 year anniversary Wu.
>> Happy 10 years anniversary.
Happy 10y year anniversary Wu. Congratulations.
Congratulations.
Happy 10 year anniversary. Wu. Congrats. Happy
Happy what?
what?
>> 10 year anniversary. [laughter]
>> Happy 10 years anniversary. Watu. Happy
10th anniversary. Is that different? [laughter]
[laughter]
>> Happy 10th anniversary, Watu.
>> Happy 10 year anniversary to Watu. Oh,
and we look forward to many more 10
years. [laughter]
>> Happy 10 years.
>> Okay. Happy 10 year anniversary to Watu.
And we look forward [music] to 10 10
more happy years. Happy 10 year
anniversary, Wat. [music]
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