What keeps 40 year old founder of Mobile Decisioning Africa (MoDe), Julian Kyula awake at night, is the question which start-up will take his company out of business. MoDe which provides mobile credit service, has a footprint in 28 countries across the globe in only five years and Mr Kinyua said he hopes to add seven more countries by the end of the year.
The company has set its target to attain 500 million customers globally by 2016. Mr Kinyua said the company has already netted 300 million customers. Mr Kyula also operates a telco licensed as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Kenya. He operates Zioncell that rides on Airtel’s network to provide mobile money services.
The innovative entrepreneur revealed that his mobile money business comes with a difference, connecting churches, youth and farmers. He has the notion that smaller companies have the latitude to address their target groups intimately.
His interest in telecommunications pushed him to set up MoDe which operates Zioncell as it provides mobile credit to targeted countries. MoDe was founded to supplement physical purchase of airtime credit especially during emergencies for mobile prepaid subscribers on credit while also offering cash payments on an application.
He also has plans to enhance the services of his mobile money firm to penetrate the continent using Airtel’s clout as a regional telco and MoDe’s as base in 28 countries.
Microcredit Delivery
The company’s vision is centred on micro credit delivered very first in what he terms as ‘nanocredit in nanoseconds’. He says its growth has depended on ability to adapt to a world that is changing rapidly.
Mr Kinyua who came third in Business Daily’s Top 40 Under 40 Men last year says he believes that once you stop innovating ‘you die’. “I constantly keep asking myself who is going to take us out of business
because change is constant and its happening so abruptly,” he said at the Global Entrepreneurship Pre-Summit Thursday.
Mr Kyula says his trick is in surrounding yourself with greater minds and better people.
In an interview on career in Entrepreneurship with 10Minutes With, he said he preferred to hire young minds who lacked inhibitions and could easily adapt. His company has won global acclaim for its innovation in the financial inclusion sector with a special emphasis on the global emerging markets.
MoDe won IBM’s SmartCamp contest and was named IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year in New York City in 2013. The company has also won the AfricaCom Awards 2013 for Most Innovative Service – MTN Swaziland’s Xtra Time Service.
Waiting Tables
He says he learnt his most important lessons waiting tables in restaurants in the United States of America where he got a better understanding of the human condition.
“From serving irate customers I learnt a lot. Am not naïve of the person who sweeps floors at my office and I also understand the needs of a chief finance officer,” he told 10MinutesWith in 2014.
Mr Kyula urged young entrepreneurs to think global and innovate with 7 billion people in mind to take advantage of the scale of the global market. His says his business that defied trends by originating a technological idea in Africa and selling it globally was only possible because he did not focus on the domestic market alone.
He however wants the billions of shillings to flow back to Kenya if the government makes the business environment conducive enough. He challenged President Uhuru Kenyatta to make Nairobi the financial Hub of Africa because currently it was almost ‘impossible’ to set up a unicorn – billion dollar business in the country.
“We are posting billions all over the world when it could come back here, given the right environment entrepreneurs will come in and invest their money in Kenya,” he said during the opening of the GES Pre-Summit on Wednesday. Julian has experience in the credit sector having worked at the Credit Reference Bureau Africa (CRB) in Nairobi.
Prior to Mode, Julian founded Quest Holdings, after working as an operations analyst and collections manager for Nationwide Credit Inc in Houston Texas. He has also worked with Allegis Group in Houston Texas, doing credit scoring for Citibank and Amex.