You just got Payd: Duo eyes gig workers with secure payment platform
Benaiah Wepundi, co-founder of Payd, a fintech that targets African gig economy workers with its payment platform, explains a point to guests during a tech expo. PHOTO | POOL
Over the last decade, Kenya's gig economy has exploded with at least 1.2 million Kenyans working online, according to a 2021 study by the Ministry of ICT.
Payment, however, is not always guaranteed. Freelancers often fall into the ever-craftier traps set by fraudsters intent on stealing their pay.
The heightened crackdown on payment platforms over money laundering also means that payments are blocked.
These challenges inspired Benaiah Wepundi and Japheth Achimba to come up with Payd, a financial technology firm that assists freelancers to get paid with ease.
Mr Wepundi, who is a software developer felt the sting of delayed payments firsthand when he was a freelancer.
He saw an opportunity to make money and approached his partner Japheth Achimba with the proposition. Together, they spent seven months developing and fine-tuning the app that promises to ease the headache of millions of freelancers across Africa.
How does it work?
“Through this app, freelancers and small businesses can create custom no-code pages, generate payment links and QR codes, and automate invoices and receipts,” explains Mr Wepundi.
With just a month in the market, Payd has 2,500 clients on its waitlist and has been deployed to automate invoices for clients in events management.
And their innovation is already attracting the right attention.
The duo won a Sh4 million grant under the incubation of the Power Learn Project (PLP), a programme that seeks to train a million African developers with modern in-demand tech skills.
This grant includes Sh3.5 million in milestone-based funding and an additional Sh500,000 in technical support to further develop their payment platform.
Albert Kimani, Head of Programmes at PLP says Payd stood out as one of the key solutions in their training that will address the skills gap currently witnessed in Africa.
“Our programme seeks to have learners deploy solutions immediately as opposed to waiting for a student to learn at the university, get his or her A’s, then graduate without necessarily getting a project out,” says Mr Kimani.
Like other emerging fintechs, Mr Wepundi says getting the necessary, financing, and licensing was a key challenge.
However, with the PLP incubation, he adds, “We were able to meet the most necessary partners that we needed at the moment.”
Mr Kimani says, “In recognition of the challenges that young people face when starting up, after training, we also help them to meet partners, run pilot tests and validate the products.”
In the next five years, the African gig economy is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 33 percent to reach $345 million.
Mr Wepundi is working to strategically position their startup to capture some of this growth dividend.
The Payd app is not Mr Wepundi's first foray into the world of software development. Two years ago he hit the market with EasyHouse, an online platform that connects university students with property owners around Kenya’s learning institutions.
