Tech Start-ups to Watch in 2014 - Buymore Kenya

What: Buymore Kenya is a discount system built for students in various universities, colleges and high schools. The pilot is currently running at Strathmore University by using an electronic card, linked to an NFC chip that can give students particular discounts in stores around the institution.

Unique Selling Point: Given that it’s an electronic card, it’s able to create a breadcrumb trail allowing the user (student) to see how much money they have saved over a period of time, and in extension, enables merchants and anyone looking to break into the student market to see where the
students spend most of their money.

Who: Buymore is led by Tony Kuchio, John Adams Opito, and James Bukisi

Scalability: This startup can scale their discount card to various other universities in Kenya and later East Africa. The estimated market pool of college and university students in the country stands at an estimated 1,200,000, and that potentially triples when scaled to the EA community.

Revenue: Buymore makes money on the sale of the card to the students via a subscription model. It costs 300 KES a year to renew this subscription. They also sell the NFC enabled phones to the store owners and sometimes make a fee off that.

By Joseph Kibiru & George Murage