Digital Address Solution for Africa

The Mpost Success Story:

In many developing countries, reliable physical addresses are rare. This makes receiving parcels, documents, and accessing services like e-commerce and banking a nightmare.

According to the UN, it is estimated that over a billion people are unregistered individuals and estimates are that up to 80% of the world’s population lacks proper addresses that are verified. This becomes an enormous barrier for those affected to get access to essential services such as Helathcare or education as well as access to financial products that all require proof of residence and for courier companies to deliver parcels.

Founded in 2016 by Twahir Mohamed, MPost has made significant strides with their unique Tech solution that developed a digital address system that turns your phone number into a physical verified address.  Twahir’s vision was; “To build the largest verifiable digital addressing infrastructure so that people can engage in e-commerce and move out of poverty.”

Initially the product was used solely for government services, but the use was soon expanded into other commercial services such as banking and insurance.

The Mpost Milestones

• 2016: Launched and saw over 1000 registrations on the first day
• 2017: reached the 40,000 users mark
• 2018: Received endorsement from the Universal Postal Union
• 2022: a new milestone reached with over 200,000 users
• Current user level of 600,000 users
• Launched its service in Rwanda in 2024

Funding and Growth

MPost’s funding journey had challenges and the start-up had to persevere through some rough patches. After securing initial funding commitments of $1.9M Mpost faced setbacks when the funding failed to materialise. Twahir Mohamed was however convinced that they had a winning solution and sold off his house and car to keep the product development funded. After product development was completed Mpost secured funding from Techstars, Renew Capital, and Sabuni, allowing them to launch commercially and expand their marketing efforts.
MPost isn’t stopping at Kenya. They’ve launched their Mpost service in Rwanda and are looking at expansion into Burundi, Zambia, and other African countries, and are currently exploring opportunities in North America to facilitate seamless e-commerce transactions between Africa and the continent.

MPost aims to build the largest digital addressing infrastructure in Africa, enabling e-commerce and improving postal services. Their innovative approach has attracted interest from banks and insurance companies and online services.