[kictanet] M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all developers, outsources work to a foreign company

Mon Mar 12 15:11:08 EAT 2018

Yup Bernard.

Great to see you on the list.. :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
<http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

Chiromo Road, Westlands,

Nairobi, Kenya.

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
organizations that I work with.

On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 1:51 PM, Bernard Matthewman <
matthewmanb at googlemail.com> wrote:

> I agree with the P2P approach, however reading the article this appears to
> be the reason they are downsizing, the CEO says “This means building a
> sustainable, profitable company that offers impact for customers and
> returns for investors.”.
>
>
>
> I think a relatively mature startup like M-Kopa is expected to make some
> corrections to staff numbers as they grow. Anyone with experience in
> growing a business will know it is not linear, the danger signs for me are
> when businesses ignore ‘building a sustainable and profitable company’ and
> use other metrics like numbers of customers or click throughs for their
> valuations.
>
>
>
> *From: *kictanet <kictanet-bounces+matthewmanb=
> gmail.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke> on behalf of Ali Hussein via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> *Reply-To: *KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> >
> *Date: *Monday, 12 March 2018 at 10:40
> *To: *<matthewmanb at gmail.com>
> *Cc: *Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke>
> *Subject: *Re: [kictanet] M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including
> all developers, outsources work to a foreign company
>
>
>
> Brian
>
>
>
> Exactly! In one sentence you have hit the nail on the head. The new game
> in town is P2P (and here I mean Path 2 Profitability not Peer2Peer) :-)
>
>
>
> Regards
>
>
> *Ali Hussein*
>
> *Principal*
>
> *AHK & Associates*
>
>
>
> Tel: +254 713 601113
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>
>
>
> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,
>
> Chiromo Road, Westlands,
>
> Nairobi, Kenya.
>
>
> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
> mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
> organizations that I work with.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 1:30 PM, Brian Munyao Longwe via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
> Hmm, they've burnt through US$ 152 million in less than 7 years... and are
> downsizing instead of scaling up...I'd be a very worried investor if I had
> skin in *that* game....
>
> My two cents,
>
> Mblayo
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 11:14 AM, anyega jefferson via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
> Follow the money, chief, which strategy creates the lowest operating
> costs?
>
>
>
>
>
> And we kinda can't begrudge anyone , for seeking profit maximization,
> though i'd think Kenyan developers are the most affordable
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 12:04 PM, Watila Alex via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
> Good Afternoon,
>
> Are kenyan developers to expensive or unable to meet the grade. or is
> something else happening here
>
>
>
> Article from M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all
> developers, outsources work to a foreign company
> <http://kenyanwallstreet.com/m-kopa-solar-fires-18-of-its-staff-including-all-developers-outsources-work-to-a-foreign-company-linked-to-new-cto>
>
>
> M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all developers, outsources...
>
> Kenya based pay-as-you-go solar provider M-KOPA Solar has fired
> undisclosed number of staff including most of it...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Kenya based pay-as-you-go solar provider M-KOPA Solar has fired
> undisclosed number of staff including most of its developers. According to
> people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity, the developers
> work has now been outsourced to a foreign company that is linked to the
> company’s new CTO.
>
> The exercise, which was completed in December last year affected a number
> of employees and some of whom were absorbed by Safaricom according to the
> source.
>
> We sought comments from the company’s CEO and Co-Founder Jesse Moore, who
> confirmed the layoffs and explained that they were necessary due to
> rising costs of technology and there was need to generate profits and give
> returns to investors.
>
> “I can confirm that we completed a restructuring process in December 2017.
> This was done to reduce fixed costs and keep us on the path to
> profitability. Overall, the company reduced headcount by 18% covering all
> departments and all levels in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and UK. We are
> outsourcing more of our technology work, maintaining a smaller in-house
> team to work directly with outsourcing partners in Kenya and overseas.” he
> noted.
>
> He went on to say that this was the right thing for the company’s
> long-term sustainability, “This means building a sustainable, profitable
> company that offers impact for customers and returns for investors.”
>
> On whether the company had outsourced the IT services to a company that is
> linked to the new CTO, this is what he said.
>
> “In mid-2017 our Acting CTO was seconded to us from one of our outsourcing
> partners, when our previous CTO left the company. Our board approved this
> and the individual is strictly recused on procurement decisions with
> companies where could be a potential conflict of interest.”
>
> The company was started by Nick Hughes, an Englishman, and his Canadian
> co-founder, Jesse Moore. Hughes is a former executive at Vodafone, while
> Moore was working for the GSMA Development Fund, a mobile
> telecommunications industry group, where he was in charge of identifying
> opportunities to make mobile services available to people in developing
> countries. M-kopa is one of the best-funded startups in Africa having
> raised more than $152 Million since inception in 2011. However, a big chunk
> of this financing is in form of debt.
>
>
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Alex
>
>
>
>
>
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