Social Media Gateways

SMG was founded in 2012 to deliver social & mobile commerce software and point of sale (POS) solutions to the Fortune 500. Clients like HP and OfficeMax have increased their revenues through amplified consumer engagement and social selling with our Ssnapp platform. The team then extended the platform to celebrities (like Zendaya), sports teams (like the Philadelphia 76ers), the hospitality industry, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) across the US.

In 2018, the US online delivery and ecommerce sectors were experiencing exponential growth. At that time our CEO Moses Kusasira, a pioneer in mobile point-of-sale (POS) and mobile payments systems, who is originally from Kenya in East Africa, began conceiving a unique global vision for  mobile ecommerce and payments services.

In developing this vision, SMG partnered with the prestigious Mojaloop Foundation to build a pilot project, and took part in the Foundation's important on-the-ground initiatives in Africa. The Mojaloop Foundation is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google, among others. Mojaloop started in Africa and provides an open source software that empowers organizations to create interoperable digital payment systems to increase financial inclusion. 

SMG's pilot project enabled individuals to make payments using various digital wallets and reward systems to amplify ecommerce and financial inclusion in East Africa. To learn more about this project see the case study: Ssnapp Mojaloop Case Study.

This project helped SMG create the framework for Moses's vision as well as enabled the team to fully understand the key payments challenges in East Africa. When considering cross-border and developing world, there are many cross-border payments issues, especially with small businesses. Think about this:

• Cross-border payments and remittances have very high fees, as much as 20% per transaction, and may take days to execute and be confirmed.
• In global ecommerce paying a merchant overseas is complicated, as most vendors in the developing world do not accept dollars or credit card payments.

Introducing PaySoko . . .

With PaySoko, we leverage our proven technology stack (Ssnapp platform) plus enhancements to make borderless ecommerce and mobile digital payments easy. The PaySoko vision enables anyone to purchase goods, make payments, or transfer funds securely online from anywhere in the world. The order is fulfilled and payment in the right currency goes to the right merchants without any delays or hassles. 

As a leading edge fintech platform, we use advanced technologies like blockchain and AI to make this possible. There are 3 key areas of mobile digital transformation:

1) Global, multi-currency ecommerce from anywhere to anywhere, including payment and logistics

2) Convenient bundled global payments -- a single payment for a bundle of related products (eg back to school shopping list) sourced from different vendors

3) Instantaneous, low-fee, cross-border money transfers (remittance)

Each of these areas is a large market opportunity but today extremely inefficient and ripe for disruption. Global cross-border payments is a $21 trillion market growing at 90% annually (CBInsights), it is powered by the rapidly growing $16 trillion global ecommerce market. Remittances is a $700+ billion market, that powers much of the developing world.

Nairobi, Kenya

The Digital Global Economy is Exploding . . .

As digital transformation has accelerated, the connected global economy has dramatically shifted the relationship between merchants and consumers worldwide. The pandemic has accelerated the digital shift even further. Unfortunately, small and medium-sized businesses have been hard hit all over the world. PaySoko’s innovative platform is well positioned to enable any business globally to stay relevant in a digitally connected future.

Africa presents one of the largest markets globally for mobile digital payments. East Africa has reached critical mass, with over 200 million consumers subscribed to mobile money services. Over 87% of Kenya's GDP is based on mobile payments. Mobile money though is not ecommerce and cannot be used outside of East Africa. One major opportunity, and our beachhead market, is connecting East Africa to the rest of the world. For that you need an infrastructure like PaySoko. 

PaySoko Product Overview . . .

SMG has deployed PaySoko across the US and in 3 key cities in Kenya, Africa, plus we will roll out to 5 more African cities by the end of 2021. The platform is transforming the e-commerce global payments landscape, bringing in next-gen fintech and ecommerce solutions that benefit both businesses and consumers.

As a fintech platform that provides cross-border ecommerce and global multi-currency payments solutions, PaySoko reduces the cost, time, and inefficiency associated with purchasing items overseas, plus transferring money internationally.

PaySoko is able to connect different countries, currencies, and payment methods through a powerful digital wallet capability. Our digital wallet technology supports both fiat currencies for our target markets (US dollars, Kenyan shillings, etc.) as well as cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). 

PaySoko can be conveniently used on any computing device, like a mobile phone or laptop. Basic features enable users to select a country and city, purchase goods remotely in local currency or crypto, select a destination in the same city, and get updates on fulfillment. Users can also pay for services, like an electric bill. The order is processed rapidly without the headaches and hassles that usually accompany the process.

PaySoko Overview

Our technology enables customers and businesses to securely transact with one another, regardless of their geolocation or currency. This drives new and repeat business to local establishments, boosting revenues by 30% or more, and brings a new meaning to a global/local or "glocal" economy. 

Get All the Benefits in One Platform . . .

With the features shown above plus advanced features such as Remittance as a Service (RaaS), a multi-currency digital wallet, and loyalty and rewards programs, PaySoko provides key benefits for everyone.

Businesses Win:

• Increased revenue for any business, online or brick-and-mortar.
• Increased customer engagement which boosts transaction volume.
• A digital platform that includes multi-currency and borderless payment capabilities, and provides access to larger local & global "glocal" markets.

Consumers Win:

• A mobile app that provides convenience and the power to conduct important financial transactions.
• Access to a trusted global gateway for making both local & global purchases and remittances.
• A transformational platform to easily manage many aspects of life on their phone.

Social Impact . . .

PaySoko is also bringing social impact to small businesses and consumers worldwide. We do this through an innovative feature called Community Sponsorship. The program creates noticeable impact within communities by making many necessary goods and services more affordable.

In this program a sponsor (an individual, corporation, or charity) enrolls to support a community. PaySoko automatically creates sponsor-branded vouchers with a programmable redemption value, and digitally distributes them to consumers in the community.

Consumers are then able to redeem these vouchers at small businesses within the community. The vouchers are valid for discounts on goods and services purchased from participating community businesses.

With PaySoko community sponsorship a sponsor can generate positive visibility in the community. This approach is more effective than traditional advertising, because consumers become more engaged and loyal to the sponsor’s brand due to the beneficial influence in the community. With this program sponsors can go well beyond traditional Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

Team . . .

The SMG C-suite is a diverse and highly experienced team of serial entrepreneurs, and mobile payments & point-of-sale (POS) pioneers with more than 100 years combined experience. They have significant international experience and have held senior corporate roles at Fortune 500 and leading-edge technology companies. The team has a particular focus on sales and marketing, B2B and B2C social enterprise, and product engineering at enterprise B2B companies, including Agilysys (AGYS), InfoGenesis, Expedia, UPS, and Hewlett-Packard.

SMG also has an exceptional team of industry leading advisors who are  C-suite executives from major advanced technology, financial services, and hospitality companies.

High Growth Potential . . .

We are positioned to capture a significant share of the rapidly expanding cross-border ecommerce and global payments market. As we expand internationally to more regions, we believe that there is a multi-billion dollar growth opportunity for SMG.

The Investment Opportunity . . .

Join us today in amplifying the reach of PaySoko as we expand into more cities and countries in Africa and beyond. Our company is poised to capture a significant share of the multi-trillion dollar and rapidly growing borderless ecommerce and global mobile digital payments markets.