Kenya-based data mining startup Doban Africa is celebrating its second anniversary with a new parcel-tracking product that is already shaking the country’s shipping industry.
D-Trail is readying to enter the market in Kenya to allow courier service providers to track and check parcels on transit.
This parcel tracking system has been used in the developed nations. Big courier companies, such as DHL and EMS (Kenya) which use tracking service, can afford this service but smaller couriers such as office riders do not have access to the service.
“Basically it helps courier companies track and manage parcels and their riders,” Elvis Bando, the founder of Doban Africa told HumanIPO. “Currently it is only for courier companies but our plan is to have it on every e-commerce website in the country.”
The service will help companies that do a lot of mailing of parcels to track if the recipient has received their goods on time. Features of the product include delivery notification, parcel/rider mapping, business analytics and parcel collection reminders.
Bando spoke of the promise of this product.
“We have been working on this for a while and we are excited to launch the beta version of it. It has already generated some interest and we have a number of companies trying it out now.”
The young startup is coming up with innovative ways to gather and make sense of corporate and community data. One of their products, Zahanati, has received rave reviews despite the fact that they have not launched it yet.
Zahanati is a malaria diagnostic tool that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to give out a diagnosis. The product has been featured on big media such as Aljazeera and Reuters.
“A user types in descriptions of their symptoms, just as they would talk to a doctor. Sometimes the app prompts for some answers. Then the algorithm works in the background to translate the input into doctor-like lingo then classifies the descriptions as either malaria positive or negative,” Bando explained.
