In Nairobi, many entrepreneurs find themselves balancing spreadsheets, making educated guesses about customer behavior, and hoping for a stable cash flow. Njoki Njoroge, the founder of Mandevu Beard Care, experienced this struggle firsthand until an AI-powered application provided her with real-time insights into her sales.
“Now I can identify my repeat customers, peak buying times, and areas of high demand,” she explains. “This shift allows us to move from conjecture to certainty.”
Peter Chege, the owner of Master Stylists Hair Salon and Barbershop, emphasizes that this tool enables him to track customer frequency and spending habits, facilitating targeted discounts and more efficient staffing. The enhanced visibility has not only supported revenue growth but has also led to a recent expansion of his salon.
This remarkable transformation stems from Auni, an AI mini-app developed by the Nairobi-based startup Fastagger, which is integrated into the M-Pesa Business Super App. Within just three months, Auni has onboarded over 3,500 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), turning everyday M-Pesa transactions into actionable business intelligence.
“Large corporations invest heavily to understand market dynamics,” Chege observes. “With Auni, we gain similar insights at a fraction of the cost.”
Fastagger CEO Mutembi Kariuki explains that Auni transforms M-Pesa PDF statements into structured dashboards using optical character recognition and lightweight AI models. These models are designed to function on low-cost smartphones and in areas with limited connectivity, allowing entrepreneurs to visualize sales trends, cash flow patterns, and customer behaviors without requiring IT expertise.
With MSMEs representing 90 percent of African businesses and accounting for 70 percent of employment, access to affordable AI technology can enhance resilience, safeguard jobs, and improve profitability. Kariuki notes that even a modest five percent increase in customer retention can lead to a remarkable 25 percent boost in profits.
Looking to the future, Fastagger aims to expand Auni into sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, and agriculture, introducing generative AI that will enable business owners to pose questions in natural language and receive immediate insights.
For Nairobi’s small businesses, AI has evolved from being a distant resource for large corporations into a practical ally, transforming everyday transactions into informed decisions and opportunities for growth.
