Cleaning-on-demand app Domestly was the overall winner at the MTN Business App of the Year Awards 2016.
The start-up also scooped the award for the best consumer app at the fifth annual awards ceremony that took place in Sandton last night.
The competition seeks to unearth innovative and customised apps that will create a distinct customer experience. There were over 450 entries from across the country.
Domestly co-founders Thatoyoana Marumo and Berno Potgieter, both 26, met at an entrepreneurship event while studying at Stellenbosch University.
Potgieter was studying chemical engineering and Marumo was pursuing a BComm in finance and investment management. They both left university and tried out the corporate world for a few months, but soon left to join the tech space and make Domestly a reality.
The idea came about when Potgieter went home while studying and the cleaner who had been working for his family for the past 10 years needed some more work on the side.
"At the same time," says Potgieter, "Uber was coming into the country, and we were seeing examples of technology disrupting industry."
It developed from there to become a cleaning service app that allows users to see rates and reviews of domestic workers available in their area.
The app also enables cleaners to manage bookings, manage their money, and find maps and directions to each booking.
Since launch in September last year, the start-up has created 600 jobs and it hopes to more than double that to 1 500 by the end of this year.
The service is available in Johannesburg and the Cape, and Marumo says it should be available in Pretoria soon and KwaZulu-Natal early next year.
Healthy competition
Developers of a similar local app, SweepSouth, spent four months in Silicon Valley last year to be part of California-based venture capital fund and start-up accelerator, 500 Startups.
It announced last month that in a year, over 50 000 house cleaning jobs had been completed using the app.
The Domestly developers say they package their solution differently to SweepSouth.
"The domestic cleaning market is an industry where nothing has happened in a very long time, so to have other players in the game kind of helps with the load," says Marumo.
"At the end of the day, it is all about creating jobs and disrupting an industry."
Potgieter says: "There is a lot of education that needs to happen. The more people out there, the more people know about it, the better."
Can't call mom
Domestly has been two years in the making and its developers say it was not always smooth sailing.
When the duo decided to launch their business at university, they left their studies for a period of time to pursue it. Potgieter says their moms were not happy with this decision and Marumo notes it was a difficult time financially.
So much so, that for dinner one evening, the pair had nothing to eat or any money. Marumo took four cold-drink glass bottles to the local supermarket and received a few coins, and with this they were able to buy two chicken drumsticks and two rolls.
"And I could not phone home because my mom was so mad at me," reminisces Potgieter.
Marumo says this was when they knew they really believed in the business and where it was going, to stick with it at such lows.
"We are humbled and grateful to win the award."
Potgieter says it is great to get some recognition because they often sat at home and wondered what the hell they were doing.
More winners
Other accolades included iKhokha for best enterprise app, HearZA for best enterprise development app, Tuta-me for best breakthrough developer app, KaChing for most innovative app, and Friendly Math Monsters for Kindergarten in the best mobile gaming app category.
There was a special mention in the best breakthrough developer category for Vyasa Rambarran, 22, who taught himself to code and created VideoKeys Pro.
One of the judges, Tanya Kovarsky, says she does not think people in SA realise the calibre of apps coming out of the country. The app awards are a way of showing this and giving developers a platform, she comments.
"A winning app is something that you don't want to go without, something that is innovative, easy to use, makes sense and brings convenience or enjoyment."
Fellow judge Nafisa Akabor says apps that solve a problem are the ones that have staying power.
Last year, courier and fleet management app Wumdrop won best overall app as well as best enterprise app. EskomSePush also scooped two awards in 2015, including best breakthrough developer app and the people's choice award.
In 2014, LIVE Inspect, an insurance claim app that allows insurers to automatically assess damage to vehicles, claimed the overall winner's spot. Mobile payments app Zapper won the consumers' choice award and best Microsoft app.
In 2013, mobile payment app SnapScan was the overall winner. The app was later acquired by Standard Bank and is now used extensively countrywide. Other winners that year included the iOS DStv app, the Nedbank app suite and PriceCheck Mobile. PriceCheck went on to win International App of the Year in the US.
In 2012, the first year of the awards, the FNB Banking app was the overall winner, with the Discovery Health ID app receiving the award for the best iOS enterprise app.
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