In early 2023, an application landed in our inbox from a company called MuduPay.
Based in Conakry, Guinea, the team had launched just a few months earlier. No funding. A tiny squad of engineers. But already moving millions of dollars through their platform.
We’ve reviewed thousands of pitch decks. But this one had us hooked. Not just because of the traction—but because of the how.
MuduPay wasn’t chasing downloads or burning cash on ads. They were doing something rarer: building distribution into the product from day one.
The Opportunity Hidden in Plain Sight
In mid-2022, the team at MuduPay spotted a systemic inefficiency hiding in plain sight.
Across Guinea, large corporations were still running outdated payroll systems. Manual processes, cash payments, long queues on payday. It was messy, inefficient, and vulnerable.
MuduPay built a simple fix: a mobile-first payroll and wallet solution that let employers disburse salaries directly into employees’ digital wallets.
They started quietly—rolling out to just a few employers. But what happened next was remarkable.
When Distribution and Product Become One
As soon as salaries started flowing through MuduPay, usage exploded.
Not because of a viral campaign. Not because of incentives. But because employees—tens of thousands of them—had a real reason to use the product. Their salary lived there.
Overnight, MuduPay became embedded in the financial lives of working Guineans. Not just a payroll tool, but the app they now used to pay bills, transfer funds, and manage their money.
It’s the kind of wedge every founder dreams of: solve one problem well, and become indispensable in the process.
From Bootstrapped to Backed
Fast forward to today. MuduPay is live in four countries, supports more than 50,000 employees, and has raised millions in funding from Future Africa, Grant Park Ventures, Hustle Fund, and angels from ZenBusiness, NerdWallet, and Amplo.
But the magic was there from day one. A team that knew their market better than anyone else—and executed with relentless focus.
We often say that distribution is everything in the early days of a startup. MuduPay is the proof.
