Inspired by the need of creating a mobile commerce platform in the country, Cyrus Mulinge the founder of Trots; developed a solution that allows “seamless and uninterrupted interaction between businesses and their audiences. It is an end to end solution that comes with comes with a consumer app, and a desktop dashboard paired with partner app for businesses. It allows businesses to take a stride to their intended success levels by creating a Trots campaign and building a community around it.” Although we might have Jumia, Kilimall and other e-commerce platforms, Mulinge believes that Africans need something that recognizes our market dynamics. Trots, which is a Kenyan developed app focuses on creating a community hence making it easy for businesses to understand what Kenyans need and the variants which are provided by companies. For example Jumia; an international service provider that delivers a wide range of items, from toys to home appliances across Africa. The platform does not offer tailor made products for specific geographical area since what is sold in Kenya is also sold in Nigeria. This makes it hard for people to buy what they are used to. On the other end, Killimall provides a variety of smartphones which are unknown to Kenyans making it hard for clients to get the most essential and regional friendly devices. “Inspiration to start Trots came from the disappointment of existing platforms operating in our market. Although some of them had an African tag they were in-control of foreigners who lacked the slightest clue of African market dynamics, this also meant there was little regard to local skills and most of development was outsourced from Europe or India. Again a lot of them where poorly done with bad navigation model, that showed the mediocre effort that went into development. With a young team of A list developers and meager resources we have managed to deliver a revolutionary solution in less 9 months.” Mulinge adds. As a Kenyan marketing platform Trots has offers from Mimi Online Shop, City Walk, KFC, BIG Square and many more. “Our business model revolves around businesses leveraging our technology on top their existing brick and mortar setup. From our pre-development research we released that customers are loyal to specific brands for specific needs and therefore we embarked on building a marketplace for them.” Mulinge says.
