Country of Residence
Kenya
Age
19
Project title
Voicebooks
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
VoiceBooks — a free, AI-powered digital business ledger that lets small and informal business owners in Africa record sales, track payments, and collect money via M-Pesa, all from their phone in seconds.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mutisya-martin-323999405?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_android
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Growth (We’ve moved past the very first activities and are beginning to have consistent weekly or monthly impact)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
My spark moment came from watching traders at local markets in Mombasa handle money all day with nothing to show for it afterward. I remember a vendor telling a customer she owed for goods from the week before, and the customer simply denying it — there was no record, so there was no way to prove it either way. That exchange stuck with me. These are people running real businesses, moving real money daily, yet completely invisible to any financial system because nothing was ever written down. It clicked for me that this wasn't a willpower problem — pen and paper exist, people just don't use them because it's slow and easy to skip during a busy day. The gap wasn't motivation, it was friction. If recording a sale could be as fast as sending a text, people would actually do it. That's what pushed me to build VoiceBooks: not as a finance app for people who already have accountants, but for the market trader who's never had a single piece of paper proving what their business actually earns — and deserves one.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
The problem I'm solving is financial invisibility in the informal economy. Across Kenya, most daily commerce — market stalls, small shops, artisans — runs entirely on memory, with no record of who paid and who still owes. When a dispute happens, there's no proof. When the owner needs a loan to grow, there's no transaction history to show a bank. Hard work that nobody can see might as well not count. This matters to me because it's not abstract — it's the economy around me in Mombasa, where the informal sector is how most people actually earn a living. These traders aren't locked out of credit because they're careless; they're locked out because nobody built them a way to keep records that fits how they actually work — on their feet, phone in hand, no time for spreadsheets. Closing that gap means the difference between staying invisible and finally having proof worth building on.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
I built VoiceBooks, a free digital ledger that turns record-keeping into something that actually fits a trader's day. Instead of filling out forms, an owner can just describe a sale out loud or in text — in English, Kiswahili, or three other languages — and AI fills in a proper, itemized invoice in seconds. It tracks exactly who's paid and who hasn't, with running balances and overdue alerts. The moment an invoice is saved, VoiceBooks offers to send it straight to the customer via WhatsApp, SMS, or email, or request M-Pesa payment directly — the customer gets a prompt on their phone, enters their PIN, and the invoice is automatically marked paid the second it lands. No manual follow-up, no guessing who still owes. It works fully offline, installs like a real app with no app store needed, and is free forever — because the traders who need this most are exactly the ones who can't afford another subscription.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
VoiceBooks is early-stage — I've been building and testing it myself, with no live user base yet. Real impact, once I reach one, won't be measured in downloads but in habit: traders recording every sale because it's easier than not. My next step is a small pilot with traders in Mombasa, tracking how many keep using it daily after two weeks — that's the number that will tell me if it actually works.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
keep records — they assume typing, forms, and financial literacy. VoiceBooks is built for people who don't keep records at all, because nothing before it removed the actual friction: typing. You can describe a sale out loud in Kiswahili or four other languages and AI builds the invoice for you. Most "fintech for Africa" tools also stop at sending an invoice — VoiceBooks closes the loop by sending an M-Pesa payment request and auto-detecting the moment it's paid, with zero manual follow-up. And it's free, forever, which matters because the traders who need this can't afford yet another subscription.
How many people are on your team?
4
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
We work together using laptops and machines to create website and codding am their leader of 4
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Explore and learn new things to advance our knowledge
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
So far my group has motivated other students and also some lecturer in great things we are making
