Kenyan entrepreneur Boniface Githinji founded Sematime, an SMS service provider in Nairobi. His start-up custom designs special features so clients can send information, bills and invoices to large groups through text messages.
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Smart schooling —
One of his biggest customers are schools, which use Sematime to send report cards directly to parents' mobile phones. The 26-year-old got the idea while at university in Nairobi, where he studied computer science.
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Keeping tabs —
After speaking to neighbors in his home town, he realized that many students would omit to bring reports to their parents, and set about thinking how he could help families keep track of their kids' progress.
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Space to grow —
Githinji initially struggled to get the schools to sign up up for his service and lacked funds to expand his business, but found help at the Nairobi Incubator Lab which gives fledgling startups office space and Internet connection: "I probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for Nailab. They were instrumental when we started," he adds.
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Turning a profit —
Sematime says that it had a turnover of 6 million Kenyan shillings last year, which is about US $68,000.
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Looking to the future —
In spite of his startup's success, Githinji remains grounded: "I think it is just beginning, we have a thousand things we want to do, and we can't wait to get started," he says.
