Nigeria’s SecVite helps organisers manage events end-to-end from their phone

Nigerian startup SecVite is a mobile-first platform for managing events from start to finish, and the platform is already seeing strong traction.

Launched last October by founder Hameed Yusuf, SecVite allows users to create an event; invite and manage guests; handle RSVPs and approvals; sell tickets; collect payments, gifts and contributions; and check guests in using QR codes.

“We started with private celebrations like weddings, but the platform can also be used for birthdays, conferences and other events,” Yusuf told Disrupt Africa.

The idea for SecVite, in fact, came from planning his own wedding. 

“I had hundreds of guests to manage and I was personally handling things like guest approvals and invitations. At some point I realised there had to be a better way to do it,” he said.

A senior software engineer with over 10 years of experience, Yusuf started building a solution himself, and used his wedding as the first real test. 

“We managed more than 400 guests through SecVite, and over 300 guests were checked in using QR codes,” he said. “That was important because it meant we were not just building something in theory. We had actually used it in a real event with hundreds of people.”

He then formally launched SecVite, a platform he said differentiates itself by its end-to-end nature and the fact it works for different types of events.

“What stood out to me was how many different tools people use to organise one event.

You might have WhatsApp for communication, Google Forms for RSVPs, spreadsheets for guest lists, bank transfers for payments, paper lists at the entrance, and another platform if tickets are involved,” said Yusuf.

“It works, but it creates a lot of manual work and friction for the organiser. A lot of event platforms also focus mainly on public ticketed events. We wanted SecVite to work just as well for a private wedding or birthday where you may need guest approvals, invitations, contributions and controlled access.”

The self-funded startup now has over 600 users, and is thinking about raising pre-seed investment to help it grow.

“A lot of our first users came through my wedding, so they originally experienced SecVite as guests rather than organisers,” said Yusuf. “The next stage for us has been getting more people to actually use the platform to run their own events.”

SecVite has started onboarding other organisers and supporting external events as well. 

“That has actually been very useful because we are learning things that you don’t always discover while building the product,” said Yusuf. “Right now, I care more about seeing organisers use SecVite repeatedly for real events than just trying to grow the user number as quickly as possible.”

SecVite is focused on weddings, birthdays, private celebrations and other events where managing guests and running the event day can quickly become stressful.

“Longer-term, we see SecVite expanding across Africa because a lot of the problems we are solving are not unique to Nigeria. But I don’t want us to rush into too many countries. The priority is getting the product and business model right in Nigeria first, then expanding from there,” Yusuf said.

Organisers can start using SecVite without paying an upfront fee, with the startup instead making money when transactions happen through an event. Depending on the transaction, SecVite charges a service fee of between five and 7.5 per cent.

“This can include ticket purchases, cash gifts and contributions, vendor payments and our digital Money Spray feature,” Yusuf said. “We are still very early, so we don’t have meaningful revenue or profit yet. At this stage, We are more focused on proving that organisers will keep using SecVite and that guests will actually transact through the platform. Once we prove that consistently, the revenue side becomes much easier to scale.”