Dayvee Ngugi
Dayvee Ngugi is a Kenyan tech entrepreneur and co-founder / CEO of Paytree Group, the company behind Mzizzi.com, an end-to-end e-commerce platform built to bring small African merchants online within minutes. Since launching Paytree in 2018 with two engineers and a single VPS, Ngugi has scaled the venture from a pilot of 20 shops in Nairobi’s CBD to a network of 3,400 active merchants across Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.
Mzizzi offers no-code storefront templates, M-Pesa and card checkout, inventory sync with WhatsApp, and plug-and-play last-mile delivery through Sendy and Fargo Courier. A 2024 upgrade added an AI catalogue builder that cuts product-listing time by 70 percent and a BNPL wallet powered by Tala. The platform now processes KES 1.9 billion in annual GMV, with 63 percent of orders originating from outside the merchant’s home county, evidence of its role in widening market reach.
Ngugi, a computer-science graduate of JKUAT, secured a US $2.5 million seed round in 2023 led by Chandaria Capital and Google’s Africa Fund. He sits on the Kenya ICT Authority’s SME Digitisation Taskforce and mentors founders through the Nailab accelerator. Committed to inclusive growth, Paytree donates server credits and training to women-owned micro-enterprises every quarter, underscoring Ngugi’s vision of democratizing e-commerce across the continent.