In Harare’s informal markets, business happens in social media chatboxes. A grocery vendor takes orders over WhatsApp, a carpenter closes deals on Facebook Messenger, and payments are made either in cash or via mobile wallets such as EcoCash. For thousands of Zimbabwe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), these chats are the backbone of commerce, but they rarely translate into seamless, scalable business operations.
That is the gap ChatCash, a Zimbabwean startup, wants to close.
Established in 2023, ChatCash helps businesses from small to big, embed payments, sales, and customer management tools directly into the places where people already transact, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, without the need for extra software or platforms.
John Sakala, an engineer-turned-founder of ChatCash, told that the company is betting on the conversational future of African commerce. “Business here is built on relationships, and those relationships are nurtured in chat,” Sakala said.
Although ChatCash is betting on Africa’s 44 million SMEs, many of them still lack the digital tools to automate payments and customer engagement. “Yet most of them are already doing business through conversations. We just needed to turn those chats into commerce,” Sakala says.
He believes the ChatCash model can reframe how Africa thinks about digital commerce, not app-first, but conversation-first. Global players like Meta and TikTok and local players like Nigeria’s Bumpa and Kenya’s Chpter are already creating similar solutions for merchants across the continent.
But Sakala says that ChatCash localises its model for Africa’s markets by focusing on businesses that may not own a business page, but will respond instantly to a customer pinging them on WhatsApp or Facebook. The startup is also layering in payments and financial services by tying chat-based interactions to credit, wallets, and multi-language support.
At its core, ChatCash offers three products. Firstly, a suite for SMEs that enables catalog creation, invoicing, order tracking, AI-powered customer relationship management (CRM), and integrated payments across platforms like EcoCash, InnBucks, Visa, and Mastercard. Secondly, tools for individuals in local languages such as Shona or Ndebele. It also helps users discover verified nearby businesses. Lastly a backend layer for banks and regulators, using AI trained on African transaction data to detect fraud and cut transaction costs.
Built for African languages
Sakala says that ChatCash’s system is designed specifically for African contexts. Its natural language models cover Shona and Ndebele, with 95% accuracy in detecting what the user is trying to communicate. That allows traders to respond to buyers in the languages they trust.
The AI also does more than translate. It drives sales through “Smart Catalogs” that he says have increased client sales by up to 30%, and uses geospatial intent mapping to connect queries like “headache” with the nearest pharmacy. Meanwhile, its spam-filtering models cut irrelevant messages by 70%, giving businesses more time to focus on real customers.
Navigating Zimbabwe’s regulatory maze
Building such a product in Zimbabwe, though, is no small feat. Sakala says the Reserve Bank requires fintech startups to pass through a regulatory sandbox. “Licenses are expensive, just applying for USSD access costs $55,000, while a full payment operator license can run into the millions, “he says.
To get around that, ChatCash has been working as an aggregator, plugging businesses into existing banks and payment providers. The company partners with ZB Bank locally and South Africa’s Secure Trust for compliance. Microsoft also stepped in with technical support and cloud resources worth over $1 million, allowing the team to train machine learning models that power its AI.
Even with those partnerships, Sakala admits the path is uphill. “The fees are high, but the opportunity is so much bigger,” he says. “We are solving a tangible, continent-wide problem.”
Making money in Zimbabwe’s volatile economy
Zimbabwe’s volatile economy would seem like hostile terrain for a fintech. But Sakala argues that ChatCash’s model of serving businesses and their customers simultaneously makes it resilient. “We are B2B2C,” he explains. “When businesses grow through us, their customers benefit too. So even in tough times, there is demand.”
ChatCash claims it has 1,000+ paying businesses on the platform and more than 8,000 onboarded in total. Its clients include NGOs managing poultry farming cooperatives, SMEs running retail shops and household brands like Simbisa Brands (operators of fast-food outlets across Africa) and the Rainbow Tourism Group.
ChatCash earns revenue through performance-based fees tied to client sales targets, monthly subscription averaging $125 per business, and premium add-ons like voice AI. The startup also sells enterprise-scale APIs and white-label solutions to banks, retailers, and governments.
Scaling from Zimbabwe to Africa
With support from the Visa Accelerator Programme and a $1 million grant from Microsoft for Startups, the startup hopes to have secured necessary fintech licenses by December.
The necessary licensing will allow the startup to expand to South Africa, Nigeria, and Rwanda. A U.S. incorporation adds another layer of ambition as Sakala wants ChatCash to eventually operate beyond Africa. The startup is also working on raising a $15 million Series A round to grow its client base from 1,000+ to 30,000 within a year.
The long play
For now, Sakala says ChatCash is still early. It is onboarding cautiously, tweaking its AI to local contexts, and chasing regulatory green lights. But Sakala’s ambition is expansive. He wants ChatCash to become the “operating system of Africa’s informal economy,” the invisible rails that finally make the African Continental Free Trade Area work for everyday entrepreneurs, not just big corporations.
If it works, the way Africa buys and sells may never look the same. Commerce will not be about browsing websites or downloading apps. It will remain what it has always been on the continent: a conversation.
By 2028, ChatCash projects $60 million in annual recurring revenue. But Sakala insists success will not be measured in dollars alone. “Our goal is to empower 100 million Africans to trade seamlessly,” he says. “Because the truth is, inclusive tech in Africa will be built in chat, not in boardrooms.”
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