The stokvel tracking start-up, Yethu, has been featured on multiple media channels these past two weeks. This attention comes as the mobile application is gaining customer traction, with over 350 registered users since the product launch on January 9th, 2017.
Media Attention
Featured in a News24 article, a web post on ITWeb and a radio interview with SA FM, Yethu is gaining significant media exposure. The conjuncture between this attention and the recently launched online customer acquisition campaign paints a promising picture for Yethu and its team.
What is a stokvel?
Stokvels are traditional community savings that have existed for over a century. Each member contributes to the stokvel on a regular basis, and one person each month withdraws the deposits. This scheme forces participants to save their money. The trouble is that the money is deposited with a stokvel leader, who is in control of all the contributed capital. There are many reported cases of fraud, theft and embezzlement from these leaders, which is where Yethu intervenes.
More about Yethu
Yethu has a vision, to safeguard stokvel members deposits by creating a transparent and accountable framework. The mobile app records every deposit from each member and notifies each of the members when the stokvel’s money is deposited in the bank. This way each member of a stokvel is aware of the leader’s actions.
Yethu was founded by two UCT students, Sebastian Daniels and Tuskan Owen-Thomas in June 2015. After raising a little over 210.000 ZAR in pre-seed funding through competitions, local government and a thundafund campaign, Yethu joined the Far Ventures accelerator in July 2016.
