Alex Ssenoga, Nathan Ssenyondo, and Kapeyi Samson have that rare thing in the African startup space – experience of a successful exit. And now they are putting their learnings to good use in the e-commerce space.
The trio were part of the team at Done Deal, a restaurant offers platform that was acquired by Kenya’s EatOut back in 2016. Their experience with that startup has informed the launch of their latest venture – TooGood.
“Done Deal gave us much exposure and training in the e-commerce world,” Ssenoga told Disrupt Africa. “When we decided to start the development of our platform, we had seen a big gap that had been left behind after the exit of Done Deal from the market, and we decided to fill that space.”
TooGood is a deals site that offers users discounts of up to 85 per cent on experiences variius things, such as meals at restaurants, spa visits, travel, events, cinema trips and hotel stays. Launched in July 2018, it has also rolled out “TooGood for Business”, a loyalty platform that HR managers can use to motivate employees by giving them discount coupons.
“We proposed this to one of the local banks to motivate its account holders and encourage them in using their credit card services, and they seem to have bought this and we’re in the final stages of signing a partnership agreement,” Ssenoga said.
“This will be a big boost in increasing daily usage of our deals on a daily basis, and this particular arrangement can be made with other banks and businesses in the same nature to influence their services.”
Uptake has already been impressive. TooGood has around 3,500 users, taking advantage of deals offered by over 300 merchants. Contracts with merchants run for 12 months, and so far TooGood has handled over 17,500 transactions which has earned it over US$33,000 in revenue.
“We’re taking a 15 per cent commission off each transaction that runs through our platform. We have also been making some money through premium listings and advertising on our site.
However, for sustainability, we’re looking to cross to a subscription model to allow us to make more money, and keep longer contracts with businesses,” said Ssenoga.
These revenues are being ploughed back into the business to help it grow, with TooGood also currently seeking investment so fast-track its development. The startup is looking for US$120,000 to expand across Uganda and into neighbouring markets.
“The market size here is 19 million internet users. Out of these, 4.2 per cent stay in Kampala, and these are the people we’re working with,” Ssenoga said.
“We have plans to move to other major towns in the country, like Entebbe, Fort Portal, Jinja, Mbarara and Gulu. And with funding our next move outside Uganda will be Kenya. We really can’t wait to tap in the Kenyan tech space for growth and exposure purposes. This expansion is what we’re fundraising for.”
