When it comes to finding niches, Ghanaian startup Asoriba has really hit the nail on the head. Especially as the gap its solution fills is actually a gaping hole.
Typically, African churches have been some of the least digitally-enabled organisations in the world. Asoriba is looking to change that, however, and its innovative church administration solution is taking it on a journey across the continent.
The Asoriba web and mobile application enables effective church administration for leaders, and seamless engagement with members via mobile phones. It makes it easy for members to pay tithes and offerings using, and provides tailormade financial services to churches. Members can be reached via push notifications, SMS, email and via the app.
Co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Nana Prempeh said Asoriba is looking to help church leaders overcome challenges in engaging with their congregation, monitoring attendance and keeping track of financial contributions.
“We provide both an administrative dashboard and a free mobile app that can be customised – for a fee – to churches on sign up. We integrate multiple branches of a church, allowing administrators of large churches easy access to all their data. Finally, we integrate with multiple payment processors and aggregators across Africa, making it easy and affordable to donate digitally,” he told Disrupt Africa.
The company was formed in September 2014, while Prempeh and his three co-founders were students at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra.
“As Christians, we found that the church had a number of challenges it faced that could be solved with technology, and the church market was also a big one worth addressing,” Prempeh said.
This has certainly proven the case, with Asoriba signing up 5,000 church clients in Ghana since its launch, and expanding into Nigeria and South Africa. The latter came after the startup took part in the inaugural Barclays Accelerator in Cape Town last year, and subsequently raised funding from Techstars and the Barclays Seeker Fund.
Other notable landmarks include being named best startup in Ghana – and also best in Africa – by Seedstars World, as well partnering with Interswitch to market its solution in Nigeria. After launching in three markets in 17 months, Prempeh is thinking even bigger.
“We have a five-year strategic plan that will make us market leaders in Africa and Latin America,” he said.
