From HowWeMadeItInAfrica. Story by Difin Mulupi.

Tanzanians Mwasapi Kihongosi and Godluck Akyoo co-founded TiME Tickets, a mobile app that allows event-goers in Tanzania to buy tickets via their mobile phones using mobile money. During check-in to an event or movie theatre, the ticket will be scanned for validation.

Here’s how they describe their product, and how they got financing for it.

“Our goal is to make ticketing easy. We started mid-2013 to fill a gap in the market.

“If you want to buy a ticket to an event in Dar es Salaam you must go to a physical outlet.

“We wanted to enable people to buy the ticket via mobile money and save the time and money spent commuting to buy tickets. Our ambition is to become a one-stop shop ticketing-solutions provider. We do a lot of ticketing in our daily lives and most people use mobile money. The potential is big.

“We first presented our idea at the regional IT conference and competition, Pivot East. Although not named winners, the experience gave us the courage to pursue the business. Our target clients include event organisers, movie theatres and travel agents. We make money through commissions.

“In the early days we bootstrapped and mostly used our own money raised from doing other IT jobs like graphics design and software development.

“We won the 2013 Vodacom Appstar challenge which came with a cash prize of 1 million Tanzanian shillings (about US $550).

“Last year we got a $15,000 grant from the Innovation Fund program organised by the governments of Tanzania and Finland. These funds made it easier for us to fully concentrate on building TiMe Tickets.

Read more at HowWeMadeItInAfrica.