Two weeks after its official launch, Equity’s fintech subsidiary Finserve has introduced yet another innovation that caters to the social, financial, and lifestyle needs of users. mKey, the multifaceted app, also comes with a built-in keyboard that seamlessly works with any app.
Speaking at the launch, Finserve managing director Jack Ngare said:
“mKey has been created to be relevant to people’s social lives and support fun conversations on any social media platform. It is a revolutionary keyboard app with a wide catalogue of customised YetuMojis and GIFs that will be constantly updated to capture the pulse of trending conversations, celebrating our Kenya identity.”
The cloud-based Android app is currently available in Kenya and the fintech company plans to scale it to eight African countries by December 2019.
The Features
mKey offers a wide range of features which are centered on convenience, diversity, the Kenyan identity, and on driving revenue.
mKey solves the issues of unsociable social media, non-seamless keyboards, and boring financial services apps with the following features:
- •Reward system: mKey has a similar feel to game apps such as Candy Crush where users receive rewards for crossing from one level to the other. With mKey, users will receive rewards such as airtime and cash back rewards to their mKey accounts. According to Ngare, this feature facilitates a savings culture.
- •Seamless Keyboard: users can choose to use mKey’s keyboard as their default keyboard, a move that will help them to access mKey’s services such as loans from any app.
- •Customised stickers, emojis, and GIFs: mKey comes with customised stickers, YetuMojis, and GIFs that Kenyans can relate with.
- •Financial services: you can pay bills, send money to mobile wallets and social media platforms such as Whatsapp, fund your mKey account with M-Pesa, create a chama, and get loans from Sh300 to Sh1 million using mKey. Interest on mKey loans is charged on risk-based pricing, ranging from nine per cent to one per cent.
- •e-Commerce platform: mKey provides an e-commerce platform where you can purchase phones, phone accessories, clothes, and shoes. Finserve has partnered with Kilimall to make this a reality.
- •News platform: mKey aggregates all your favourite news in one app.
Future Plans
During the launch, Ngare revealed that Finserve is working with WorldRemit to rollout remittance services through Jenga API this month.
The fintech will launch the iOS version of the app in November and the mKey marketplace by the end of this week. The company will also introduce in January 2019 a feature where you can build your own emoji. Finserve is working with Google recognition towards this end.
The marketplace will offer developers, designers, and artists a place where they can build their own widgets and YetuMojis and monetise them.
“We have ambitions of taking mKey to all markets in Africa and we are open to integrating mKey to any financial institution in the continent to ensure that we offer the relevant financial services,” Ngare stated.
