Meet the 31 year old Techpreneur who is taking Kenya by storm

By Our Reporter

He’s an early starter, a curious individual, analytical to the core, the very definition of an entrepreneur and a doer. Chris Gathingu is the CEO & Founder, Tangazoletu Limited. This is an ICT and Mobile solutions firm that uses technology to create solutions to business process challenges to promote efficiency.

Having started Tangazoletu with less than $2000 in the year 2005, Gathingu has been able to move the company to handling contracts worth over $15 Million. He built his first SMS based system while still in school at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, having identified a gap in the ICT sector.

After graduating with a First Class Degree in Computer Technology, he worked at Royal media Services as an IT assistant where he trained presenters and set up two vernacular radio stations; Ramogi and Inooro. He later joined DATABIT LTD as a Sales and Technical Assistant Manager where he not only deployed VSAT for various organizations, he also installed, configured, trained and maintained 3 Large IP NBX systems at UNDP Somalia, Standard Media Group and Barclays Bank of Kenya.

He left Databit in 2005 to start his own firm, Tangazoletu Limited where he has been the visionary behind transformative solutions built by the company to date. His idea was and still is to build transformative solutions with countrywide coverage and use.

At Tangazoletu, Gathingu knows that the buck stops with himself; He Identifies problems that need solving, comes up with the solutions that can address the problem, briefs his team who then brainstorm, build, review and test the product before its commercial launch.

He began by designing Bima Serve – a mobile and email based solution that enables automation of various insurance services including premium payment, premium notification and reminders and various inquiries ensuring that insurance services and information is easily accessible. This product is still in use at leading insurance companies in Kenya including cannon Assurance and Madison Insurance.

He then started working on a mobile banking solution for financial institutions and that grew to become SpotCash Mobile Banking *645#. Spotcash is the first mobile banking solution for Saccos and a key revenue earner for Tangazoletu Limited. Spotcash is now in use in over 60 Financial Institutions among them 2NK Sacco, Nation Sacco, Imarika and Sheria Sacco and has made Tangazoletu be the Biggest Sacco Aggregator in Kenya.

In 2010, Tangazoletu partnered with Safaricom as one of the local Product development partners tasked to develop and grow M-Pesa. This relationship that remains to date has seen Tangazoletu developing products like Lipa na MPesa (merchant settlement); a service that handles over Kshs.150 million daily, M-PESA data bundles purchase and Lipa na M-PESA online among others. Gathingu spearheaded the company to bag, build and support Safaricom Lipa na M-Pesa settlement systems; a business worth $10-15 Million.

He also spearheaded the building and development of the finance and payment component of TIBU, a national TB management platform funded by USAID and used by the Ministry of Health- Division of Leprosy TB and Lung Diseases. TIBU is in use in all the 47 counties in Kenya and brought in business worth $6 million. C

At 31, Gathingu insists he was lucky to have started early and had the right proportions of resources for every step of the journey. His “LESS TALK, MORE DEEDS!