Peter Muchemi is the co-founder and CEO of FaidiHR, an all-in-one cloud platform that allows small and medium enterprises in Africa to automate their HR processes.
The company helps to automate payroll, off-days, employee data, tasks, inventory, training, appraisals and expenses.
Muchemi’s passion revolved around the digital space, and thus his decision to set up a company offering HR solutions.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Background
The company was established in 2018 as Crew HR, but rebranded as FaidiHR in 2020 after it received funding.
As for Muchemi, he grew up with an interest in the digital space, and he decided to pursue it when he joined university to pursue Computer Science.
After completion of his studies, he was fortunate to secure an opportunity with Consumer Insight and Software Technologies Limited.
He worked as an intern in both companies before joining Eclectics International.
“It’s at Eclectics International, where I’ve got so much experience when it comes to programming and payment systems, not just here in Kenya but also outside the country,” he said.
Muchemi left Eclectics International after a short stint to found FaidiHR in 2020, although it was formerly known as Crew HR.
They rebranded after getting an investment from a US investor called Sprintex.
“We basically help small and medium enterprises automate their manual payroll and HR processes. So, we started back in the year 2020, and by then the company was called Crew HR, but mid-last year we rebranded to Faidi HR,” he said.
Faidi HR allows an individual consultant or company to facilitates payroll processing, pay slips and report generation for different clients under one account.
They also offer other modern solutions including payroll management, employee onboarding and leave management.
Other services are timesheet and attendance, integrations and employee self service.
Muchemi explained that he got into the business as HR and payroll services were done manually and it took long to be finalized.
He invested Ksh 400,000 into the business.
“And I met a friend of mine, and we agreed to do research on what the gaps were in the sector, and we realized we had so many others,” Muchemi said.
Adding;
“I remember I had saved quite some amount of money that I used to fund the operations of the company. So capital was the biggest challenge and is still the biggest challenge right now for any business based in Africa.”
FaidiHR currently works with among others KLM, Air France, Lima, Renegade Air and FIDA Kenya among other top NGOs.
“And it’s true that we now use such claims as a reference, and now we have trust from companies like even Air France
“But since mid-June last year, our company portfolio has more than doubled, and we expect that number to also triple,” he added.
The company’s services are categorized into three areas; Basic, Standard and Premium.
“So the premium cup package comes with advanced modules like performance and appraisal projects, and that ranges from Ksh 200 to Ksh 300 per employee
“So again, it’s still very affordable, and you can even choose and customize which features you want and which you don’t want,” Muchemi said.
He explained that his major challenges include dealing with clients who are skeptical about the solution.
“One of the hindrances to getting clients was a lack of trust because we are, you know, proposing customers use a solution that is based on the cloud. So that means they have to put their data on the cloud
“And you’re proposing this to big companies, established companies that are more than 20 years old. So they were a little bit skeptical about whether we could trust these young people to manage our data. So that was one of the biggest challenge,” Muchemi explained.
