Nigerian technology startup, OkHi, has secured $1.5 million in a new seed extension led by Chapel Hill Denham, Flutterwave’s founder, Olugbenga GB Agboola and executives alongside EXFI -a syndicate of ex-Googlers.
OkHi provides a digital technology that makes the verification of addresses easier and more accurate in Nigeria.
For a country like Nigeria where address verification is important for many reasons – especially in the financial space – this becomes a challenge with poor mapping out or inaccurate address input. For instance, in the financial space, for an address to be verified, customers use inefficient processes like scanning and sending utility bills or requesting physical agents to visit their address – both processes which come with their unique inefficiency.
However, the challenge of address and location verification has a broader impact on the socio-economic environment of society.
The startup was founded in 2014 by Timbo Drayson. OkHi allows banks, fintechs and businesses to collect and verify customers’ addresses through their smartphones. The services replace the need for utility bills and in-person interactions between customers and agents.
The company claims that it is the only smart address verification service globally with this smartphone feature.
Speaking about the product, Timbo said: “The problem that I was experiencing firsthand, whether it was trying to get a delivery, then from Jumia, in its early days, or whether it’s just trying to register for a SIM card, everyone was asking for an address, and there’s no way for me to give an address. And I realised that this was a huge problem, not just for every Nigerian, but also for half the world.”
A survey conducted by the startup on hundreds of Nigerians revealed that 78% of Nigerians disclosed that they were required to prove their address to get a job. The survey also reveals that 50% said they did not have a utility bill and 57% revealed they could not verify their address in certain situations.
A report by DAI Global Digital reveals that more than 4 billion people don’t have a formal physical address, and it costs the world’s economy over $200 billion yearly. This now becomes a very important problem to solve and thankfully, OkHi’s grand mission, according to the founder, is to get these people who don’t have a physical address included in the global address system.