Just like many founders, Lilian Makoi, co-founder of Mipango faced difficulties when starting. At some point, she and her founding partner were doing a self –assessment of the financial state they were in against the opportunities they have had in their careers. Unfortunately, It didn’t look good.
With no savings and bare minimal investments, they knew they had to take drastic actions. During the course of their conversations, they admitted they had bad spending habits, driven by impulse purchases. The plan was to try out apps that can help them become better spenders and build a habit of saving.
A week later, they were both frustrated because while they could find apps that helped them record their transactions, plan budgets and stuff, that was not the crux of their problems. The apps did not curb their spending habits nor provide financial education to be better spenders, savers and investors.
After a second round of trying a few other solutions, Lilian and her founding partner decided they were going to build a solution that works for people who have an income and would need help managing and growing what they have, especially women.
They teamed up to research if the problem was common amongst friends and relatives, got their answers, and designed the solution’s prototype. Afterwards, they pitched the idea to a developer they knew and a few other friends to now build a pilot/ MVP app which birthed Mipango.
Mipango Fintech is a Tanzania based Fintech that builds Digital Solutions and Content Creation aimed at driving Financial Literacy AND Financial Inclusion to the Mass population.
Since inception, Mipango has recorded over 15,000 users, has been accelerated by PesaTech Accelerator, NVIDIA Inception and LOFT Fintech Africa Accelerator. Also, it won the Wazo Challenge by Startup, Raseau.
On the peculiar challenges she has faced as a female founder, she thinks raising capital for female founders can be difficult. She says that it probably becomes easier to raise when a company grows to Series A, B,C+ but the hardest is raising at the idea stage.
Also, many VCs would pick one female founded startup to have in their portfolio just to tick the box, while 90% of the startups in their portfolio remain male founded.
At this rate, female founders are scrambling for a very small cake. She reveals that Mipango found it easier to raise through donors and crowdfunding to get ourselves started.
On how gender equity can be achieved in Africa, Lilian asserts that more gender specific VCs and funding opportunities should be pushed as priorities.
Further, large corporations could be given some tax benefits if they invest a percentage of their profits to female founded startups and SMEs.
Also, investors should require the VCs they work with to pick at least 40% female founded startups that are doing well and have favourable prospects.
Similarly, she advises that there should be initiatives to drive the supply of quality female founded startups and the ecosystem should also push to have gender-specific accelerators and incubators.