This summer I interned at Kwara Gmbh, a B2B fintech startup based in Berlin and Nairobi, committed to digitizing savings cooperatives in emerging markets that serve the three billion unbanked and underbanked population by offering affordable, user-friendly, secure, and SaaS-based online and mobile banking solutions. The company has been growing fast since its inception in 2018 and now is looking for global expansion to further drive the revenue growth. I was mainly responsible for developing its business from scratch in Asia (ASEAN) and Africa along with formulating a market entry strategy.

Throughout the summer (in the first three months of the six-month long internship), I completed the evaluation of seven countries and proposed a market entry strategy that included country analysis, operational preparation, and financial modeling and budgeting. I also helped with looking for promising investors for a seed round grant, as well as collaborating on the Slingshot Startup Competition. The specific business development responsibilities consisted of 1) understanding and choosing the markets: market sizing, customer segmentation, competition analysis, and opportunity and risk assessment; 2) making a practical operational plan that included elements such as market entry priority and timeline, organizational charts, vehicle format, required licenses, hiring, and marketing with a focus on pricing strategy and potential reselling partners; and 3) building a financial model to project revenues and prepare budget in the new markets.

Without my MBA curriculum I would not have been able to carry out such responsibilities. For example, research work requires good structured thinking and highly quantitative and qualitative skills, which I have gained through the strategy and data analytics courses during my MBA. Also, without the knowledge gained from the financial modeling and evaluation courses, it would not be easy for me to build a financial model and budget plan of quality. Moreover, the qualitative and networking skills I learned at Columbia Business School, plus the alumni network, allowed me to build partner and client relationships from the ground up in the local market in a more efficient way.

I think my experience at Kwara was valuable. I closely worked with the CEO and COO, who was my supervisor, and learned a lot about the way they run the company and manage people. I quite enjoyed the collaboration I had with them while also having quite good autonomy in doing my job. The open and merit-based corporate culture allowed me to work across many aspects of the startup, which deepened my knowledge about fintech. Additionally, the diverse team I was working with, having colleagues from UK, Kenya, United States, and the Philippines, improved my ability to communicate and collaborate with people from different backgrounds.

Overall, the work I produced this summer directly impacted the growth of Kwara’s business in the next three years and even in the longer term, and I had the opportunity to actually bring in meaningful business streams in proposed markets and build and maintain partner and/or client relationships. As I plan to switch my career from real estate to the technology sector, I believe this experience will be a good starting point for such a change.