Technology firm Craft Silicon is best known for the taxi hailing provider, Little, which is locked in market share fight with giants-Uber and Bolt.
But behind the scene, the firm is cutting multi-million shilling deals in the sale of banking software and digital payment solutions in over 30 countries across Africa and Asia.
The firm’s founder and CEO, Kamal Budhabhatti, sat down with the Business Daily to discuss Craft Silicon’s diversification, expansion and building a global tech business from Kenya.
Craft Silicon is in 30 markets across Africa and Asia. What is the company’s game plan when it comes to scaling internationally?
When it comes to smart payments, the adoption is more in Africa compared to several Asian countries where we operate, like India and Indonesia. It is an opportunity for us to have Kenya or even the East African region, where the people are more receptive to newer technology.
At the same time, some products, like Little, are capital-intensive. We are in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. In any new market that we go into where the marketing cost of the product is very high, we wait until we become profitable before entering a new market.
Your products, such as Little Cab, came after other global technology firms like Uber and Bolt set up shop here, and more are entering the market. Do you see any threat in competing with giants, and what sets you apart?
Obviously, we will get stiff competition when the bigger players from outside come, but we have our own niche, and we have our own unique proposition to the market. That’s why we always survived and scaled up. We welcome them and are also now in a position to acquire some of them.
We understand the local market well, compared to a player coming from outside, in terms of pricing and costing. Our prices are much lower.
It is also about making our value proposition unique.
With Little, for instance, we went beyond corporate ride-hailing to logistics in 2022. We are the only player with an array of solutions from two-wheelers like boda-bodas, three-wheelers, all the way to the 40-wheeler large trucks and containers. Now, the logistics arm has picked up well and accounts for 30 percent of what our platform generates.
Companies regionally are diversifying to cut reliance on a single product line. With your new platform, why did you want to get into tourism, and what opportunity do you see?
It was borne out of a problem that tourists, including my relatives when they visit from India, face. Many places they would go to do not accept cards, and without local SIM cards, they end up either carrying cash or having me pay on their behalf.
If it is convenient for tourists to do the transaction, their spending will also go up. Going to a forex bureau, converting the cash and carrying around Sh50,000 is not easy. It is more convenient to tap and pay with a card, and it brings in the larger transaction volume, which also helps our economy to scale.
The plan is to roll out Tourist Tap here and enter Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia in the next three months, and before the end of the year, head to West Africa. We are evaluating markets outside Africa. We are targeting countries where mobile wallets are very pervasive and dominant, so South Africa, for example, would not be ideal because cards are everywhere, compared to Zimbabwe.
What would you want to see more of to create a more enabling environment for local technology firms to thrive?
Even though I feel that regulators are supporting the innovation, M-Pesa is still very dominant, which sometimes puts some innovations at risk, in that everything has to end up in M-Pesa. More players would help us to remain more innovative.
Do you think current rules in Kenya and across Africa support or hinder innovation in fintech?
I would personally vouch for regulators. They are doing an amazing job and are also very pro-innovation.
As an innovator, what have you learned from failure?
We have tried many products and failed many times, but I think our key strength is that we have remained very agile. I like fostering a company culture where we allow people to try out everything that they feel could be interesting. And if the product fails, then it’s okay. We figure out why or what made it fail and learn from there.
What do you want your legacy to be?
I want to ensure that I run several companies like Elon Musk. He has done so many companies. I want all the companies I run to be profitable and innovative, but I don’t have to be in their day-to-day operations.
My mantra has always been to remain innovative and continue delivering. I believe things will fall in place if you have the right product.