A conversation with Robert Muoka Salim, Founder and CEO of Innovative Proptech Startup: My Shamba Digital

My Shamba Digital is an innovative Kenya-based proptech startup aiming to simplify real estate transactions.

Our users can access a dedicated team of professional High Court of Kenya Lawyers, Architects, Surveyors, Spatial Planners and Land Surveyors with extensive experience in their respective fields to help them submit applications for various Department of Land and Land services National Land Commission.

You can also:

  • Access relevant country information in our flagship resource center and legal blog.
  • Find a place to call home from our handpicked homes, apartments and staycations for both short term and long term rentals on our flagship property page, My Shamba Digital Property Listings.
  • Find your dream plot to build your dream home on our verified land listings page, My Shamba Soko.

When did you start My Shamba Digital? How and where did the journey begin?

My Shamba Digital was founded in early quarter 2021 by Robert Muoka Salim and James Kiptalam, both Solicitors to the High Court of Kenya, to help resolve land disputes and reduce land fraud incidents. Robert (Founder) is a High Court of Kenya Solicitor with over 6 years experience in the real estate sector while James (Co-Founder) is a High Court of Kenya Solicitor with over 13 years of experience in the real estate sector.

Incidents of land fraud and related crimes have increased in Kenya over the past decade. The Ministry of Land 2017 reported that there were 7,052 registered cases of property fraud costing the economy Sh60 billion annually. The Justice Needs and Satisfaction in Kenya survey, conducted by The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) in collaboration with the Kenyan Judiciary, found that land disputes affect between 2.4 and 2.8 million Kenyans.

Our operations are primarily located in the Republic of Kenya, however there are plans to expand our operations into Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt.

Who is the target group?

Our target customers are prospective buyers from the real estate industry. My Shamba Digital provides a platform that offers its users the service of verifying title deeds of real estate. We provide land registration services, land management services, land appraisal services, land surveying services and dispute resolution services.

The early adopters of My Shamba Digital were prospective land buyers, land owners, real estate students, real estate practitioners ie lawyers, architects, surveyors, land use planners, real estate appraisers, legal innovation centers, real estate development companies, real estate sales companies and real estate agencies and events companies.

The feedback has been outstanding as we have been able to resolve over 400 legal requests and amassed a massive following of over three thousand across our social media platforms. Our monthly active users have also doubled from 55,000 to 110,000 users.

Are you planning to improve or update your product?

Our product scaling roadmap is as follows:

  • Our technology is scalable and we are currently in the process of designing a mobile application for the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Samsung App Store and Microsoft App Store.
  • We are also curating content for our upcoming podcast which will provide our listeners and viewers with basic legal education on the various land processes as we seek to resolve land disputes and reduce incidents of land fraud in Kenya. This content will be available on all streaming platforms and YouTube.
  • Our web development team is currently designing and developing a USSD platform that will allow us to reach new users and customers who do not have access to our web-enabled platforms ie mobile app and our web platform.
  • There are also plans to integrate Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) into our property and property listing platform to enhance our user experience.
  • We are also developing a property management system to help landlords listed on our platform manage their properties effectively.
  • We integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning into our ChatBot, mobile app and web app.
  • We also intend to use blockchain technology to secure our user accounts and generate smart contracts.
  • Finally, we plan to introduce a document automation and title transfer document generation system that will allow users to create relevant title transfer tools against payment of a price to be determined soon.

What are your proudest achievements so far?

 

Some of our project milestones at My Shamba Digital are as follows:

  • Featured in Africa’s Top 50 in Legal Innovation (2021), a list compiled by Africa Tech Law and the Lawyers Hub.
  • Winner Best Tech Solution at Africa Legal Innovation Hackathon 2021.
  • Top 15 finalists in Total Energies’ Startupper of the Year 2022 Challenge (Startup category under 3 years old).
  • Nominated as Startup of the Year at the Founder of the Year Awards 2022.
  • Our CEO and Founder Robert Muoka is nominated for Techpreneur of the Year 2022 (under 30) at the 2022 Founder of the Year Awards.
  • 2nd place at the Finnovating Awards 2022 as the most innovative startup.
  • Finalist as the most sustainable startup at the Finnovating Awards 2022.
  • Finalist as the most influential startup at the Finnovating Awards 2022.
  • Finalist at the Global Legal Hackathon 2022.
  • Finalist at HiiL 2021 African Justice Innovation Symposium.

Talk to us about your investment plans.

 

My Shamba Digital is actively seeking strategic business partners, technical partners, angel investors and venture capitalists as we seek to raise capital through a $250,000 seed equity investment round for a 10% (negotiable) equity interest in our company.

We have partnered with various venture capital raising organizations including Venture Capital 4 Africa, Finnovating, Startany and Crunchbase to achieve this important milestone.

My Shamba Digital has also been included in the E4Impact incubator program organized by the Italian Development Agency in collaboration with the E4Impact Foundation. The program works with Kenyan companies to support their growth, increase their revenues, guide them to profitability and provide them with partner access to Italian companies.

 

 

Source: techround

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