Building for Where it Matters Most
“So why does this matter in emerging markets?”
As we’re building Smile Identity, I am often asked why we focus on markets outside the United States when identity and security are now such big topics in the U.S.
The answer is both personal — at Khosla Impact I saw first-hand the challenges companies around the world faced trying to effectively establish a user’s identity — and practical — at Smile Identity we’re interested in supporting banks, lenders and telecoms that have fewer available tools to rely on when doing “know your customer” (KYC) due diligence.
In markets like Tanzania, Nigeria, Indonesia and the Philippines, credit bureaus are still relatively new, social security numbers and national IDs are not ubiquitous and background checks often require personal calls or visits.
Just because our markets are emerging doesn’t mean they aren’t important.
The rapid growth in low-cost smartphones in Africa and Asia means that over the next 10 years an entire generation will end up transacting in mobile environments without ever using a desktop machine.
As Mary Meeker pointed out last year, Nigeria, India and South Africa lead the world in mobile-first / mobile-only Internet adoption.
This is why we’re building a team with deep personal experience across mobile and emerging markets.
Today I’m excited to announce two key hires.
First, Wayne Stocks is joining Smile ID as our Director of Operations, based in Cape Town, supporting our first customers across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Wayne is a Chartered Accountant who has spent the last 3 years as Channel Director for JUMO World, one of Africa’s largest mobile financial services companies.
At JUMO, Wayne was responsible for telecom relationships, product integrations, operating performance and customer success across 5 African markets, including the building and day-to-day management of local teams in each country.
I’m thrilled to have Wayne join our management team in a leading role.
In addition, last month we welcomed Zaki Mounkaila to our engineering team. Zaki will lead Mobile Development for Smile ID, handling our SDKs, customer Apps and technical documentation.
Zaki previously built communication and video chat apps for TheMeet Group and rebuilt the mobile conferencing solution for enterprise VOIP provider 8x8.
Zaki has been working in Android since the release of JellyBean (Android 4.3). In addition to being a great engineer, Zaki speaks 4 languages, including French, and hails from the West African nation of Niger.
He joins a team made up of members from 5 countries including 3 African nations.
And we’re still hiring!
If you have an MS or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical field we want to hear from you.
We’re looking for technical leaders who are passionate about seeking the truth and want to expand trust around the world using software.
