Soweto Born e-commerce Disruptors Bring Payment Solution Aligning With Kasi Economics With Tech Start-up, ‘Airbuy’
Airbuy, a locally inspired Ecommerce disruptor which allows consumers to pay online using mobile phones, is now scaling their Tech Start-up to allow them to expand and offer payment solutions to businesses and consumers who operate in the 2nd Economy. The duo has built a way for South Africans to pay online using their phone numbers instead of risking their banking details. The team is growing its solution and is inviting more South Africans and local businesses to sign up as they scale their offering nationwide to help more South Africans pay safer when buying online.
Thanks to Adanian Labs, a Pan African high impact tech disruptor’s investment in SA start ups with high potential to revolutionise Fintech markets, Airbuy co-founded by Soweto born, Wits Alumni, Njabulo Makhathini and Tshepang Kobo affords them the much needed resources and infrastructure support to commercialise their platform. Airbuy was officially launched in 2019 with the mission to help ordinary South Africans pay and transact online more safely using their phone numbers instead of risking their banking details. Their vision is to make paying online as simple as buying from a “Spaza Shop”.
Through their tech disruptor Airbuy links and becomes a key connector between online stores and the greater population of individuals who look to buy online without entering their bank details. This is achieved with the use of a mobile wallet linked to their phone numbers.
Tshepang Kobo is both an Alumni of the MIT and Wits Boot camp where Airbuy was birthed. Both Tshepang and Njabulo have resiliently worked small jobs and focused on seeing the realisation of their dream to see this socially impactful and commercially viable platform, that offers the greater majority of South Africa’s unbanked and under-banked society, inclusivity as active buyers online.
The platform, built with the ordinary man in mind, allows its users to hold an Airbuy wallet linked to their mobile numbers and is easy to load via ATM deposits or purchasing a voucher at a “Spaza Shop” or Retail stores, to the value they want to load, and then redeem on www.Airbuy.africa.
Airbuy allows users to top up their Airbuy wallet (linked to their number) and pay using their phone numbers on any online stores that have the Airbuy blue button.
Now looking to increase their merchant and consumer community currently at just over 600, Airbuy is inviting businesses to sign up on their platform, “We are confident that partnering with us will give merchants access to a wider customer base in the township economy. We have made sign up quick and easy with great leverages for businesses who work with us as the black youth of South Africa,” says Kobo
Airbuy also offers merchants access to a wider consumer base that is concerned about being scammed using their banking details when paying online.
Starting this May, Airbuy will be hosting a series of workshops to assist small businesses in setting up their online stores and growing their business online. These workshops offer a detailed step-by-step approach for entrepreneurs, from inception to launch, providing them with tools to help these businesses flourish even after the national lockdown.
Details of the workshops will be shared online. Entrepreneurs interested in taking part in the workshops can register using a link that can be found on Airbuy’s social media platforms.
“It gives us great pleasure to invest in this product, partnering with South Africa’s black youth and enabling the continuity of the Airbuy innovation as Adanian Labs because this allows us to be part of the future Africa we want to see. An Africa that produces solutions that are scalable across the continent and globally,” shares Vanessa Perumal, Local country partner for Adanian Labs South Africa.
“We feel we are ready to take our next big step on our journey which is taking Airbuy and scaling it across South Africa first then across the rest of the continent. The partnership with Adanian Labs comes at a very pivotal time for Airbuy as Adanian Labs Venture Building Programme is more continent focused.” says Njabulo Makhatini, COO of Airbuy.
Since being selected and with funding received, the founders have been working on improving their product to ensure that it best serves the many more users they anticipate as they gear to scale into the market where it takes on giants such as PayPay, Ozow, PayFast to mention a few.
“South Africans have received Airbuy well since our official roll out in mid-2019 and we are very humbled by that. We are very excited about the growing community of local e-commerce businesses that have offered Airbuy as an alternative payment option to give their customers a safer and more comfortable option to pay online at their online store,” said Kobo.
