Your customers already message you. Answer like a proper shop.
One WhatsApp number your whole team answers, replies that run themselves, and M-Pesa paid right in the chat, with the cost of every message in front of you before you send it.
Your own WhatsApp Business number. No card needed to start.
Dar es Salaam · Ali Mkumbwa, Unsplash
Niaje, mko na 5L jerrycans?
Ndiyo. KES 850 each, 40 in stock.
Built for the businesses Kenya runs on
DukaShops and tradersPrices and stock answered once; orders and M-Pesa in the chat.
KlinikiClinicsReminders patients answer, and a front desk that is not one phone.
ShuleSchoolsFee notices every parent reads, and fees paid from the parent’s chat.
Chama na SACCOSACCOs and chamasStatements, reminders and repayments, collected where members read.
You are Grace. Ask the duka.
Tap her messages and watch Sema answer, the way it does in your inbox. Prices are all in, on Growth.
- What Sema does appears here, step by step.
A demonstration: nothing here is sent to anyone.
Grace has seen your shop’s number on a poster. Send her first message below.
- Official WhatsApp Business Platform
- Top up by M-Pesa
- Statements with your KRA PIN
- Data stays in your workspace
Every message priced.
Replies cost least.
WhatsApp is priced per message, by what kind it is. Answering customers costs a fraction of reaching out to them. Move the sliders and see your own month.
Inside the 24 hours after they write: KES 0.65 each on Growth, and free for the first 1,000.
Order ready, appointment reminder, receipt: KES 0.65 each on Growth.
Promotions, new stock, a campaign: KES 3.66 each on Growth.
One-time codes sent through the API: KES 0.65 each on Growth.
36% of what you spend on messages.
- Messages
- KES 3,648
- Growth plan
- KES 9,900
- Total a month
- KES 13,548
Messages to numbers in Kenya, from 1 October 2026. Meta bills its part of each message to your card; the plan and the rest come from your M-Pesa credit. A message that fails costs nothing.
How a conversation actually works
One customer, one day, and the only clock that decides what you pay.
- 1Window opens
A customer messages you
They already have WhatsApp and they already have your number. Nothing to install, no app to convince them to download.
- 2Open
You reply for 24 hours
Anything you like: text, photos, voice notes, a product from your catalog. A reply is the cheapest thing you send, and the first 1,000 a month on each number are free.
- 3Closing
The window closes
Sema shows the clock running down on every conversation, and keeps the ones about to close in a list of their own.
- 4Charged
After that, messages cost money
Only an approved template gets through, and each one is billed. Sema shows you the price before you press send.
What you get
One inbox for the whole team
Everyone answers from the same number instead of four staff phones. Assign conversations, leave notes for each other, and see who is handling what.
Conversations whose 24 hours are about to close have a list of their own, because the one about to cost you money is rarely the newest.
Answers that run themselves
An away message, a welcome, a reply to a keyword, or a whole flow: ask, wait, branch on the answer, check your own system, hand over to a person. Built as steps, saved with every version.
AI that knows its place
A draft of the next reply for your team to read and send. If you choose, it answers on its own: only from what you have written down, and a person takes anything else. Off until you switch it on.
Sell in the conversation
Send products from your WhatsApp catalog, one or thirty at a time. The customer orders in the chat, and pays by M-Pesa into your own till from the same conversation.
Campaigns people agreed to
Send to a saved audience at a rate WhatsApp is happy with, with offers, carousels and tracked links. Every opt-in is recorded and STOP is honoured, so your number keeps its quality rating.
Costs you can see
Every message is priced before it is sent, all in, and reconciled against what Meta actually charged. Top up by M-Pesa, and watch the balance in the header.
One shop’s day, from the first message to the last
- 06:40Before opening
The away message tells early customers when you open, and their question waits in the inbox for you.
- 09:15“Bei gani?”
Grace asks the price. You send the product from your catalog, with its picture and price.
- 11:02While you serve
AI answers “mnaleta Kilimani?” from your delivery notes, and leaves anything else for a person.
- 13:30Lipa hapa
The M-Pesa prompt goes from the chat. Paid, with the receipt, before the order leaves.
- 17:00New stock
One offer to the customers who said yes, with the price shown before it sends.
If your people are on WhatsApp, this is for you
The job is the same whether they are customers, patients, members or respondents: reach them where they already are, keep a record of it, and be able to show they agreed to hear from you.
Shops and traders
TodayOrders arrive on three staff phones. Nobody can say what was promised to whom, and payment means sending a till number and then chasing screenshots.
With SemaOne number the whole team answers. Products sent from your catalog, the customer’s cart arriving as an order in the thread and paid by M-Pesa into your own till, and the questions you answer forty times a day answered for you (price, stock, delivery) from what you wrote down.
Clinics and hospitals
TodayReception rings patients one at a time to confirm tomorrow’s appointments, and the ones who do not pick up still do not turn up.
With SemaA reminder template the day before. Whoever replies opens a 24-hour window to answer in, and the answer lands in the shared inbox instead of a handset.
Schools and colleges
TodayFee balances go home on a printed slip that never arrives, and following up means a phone call per parent.
With SemaA fee notice to the parent list as an approved template, with the parents who reply landing in one shared inbox. Every notice and every answer is on the record, and nothing is sent to a parent who opted out.
SACCOs, insurers and lenders
TodayStatements and renewal notices go out by bulk SMS at a flat rate whether anyone reads them. If a member disputes being contacted, there is no proof they ever agreed.
With SemaTemplates priced per message before they send and reconciled against what Meta actually charged, delivered only to members whose opt-in is recorded and who can stop them with one word.
Researchers and M&E teams
TodayEnumerators work from personal WhatsApp. The responses live on their handsets, and when someone leaves the fieldwork leaves with them.
With SemaOne workspace the whole team answers from, replies kept where the study can export them, and consent recorded per respondent. Sema distributes and keeps the record; it is not a form builder.
Event organisers
TodayJoining details sit in an email nobody opened, and a change of venue reaches half the room on the morning.
With SemaAn approved template to the attendee list that arrives where they actually read, a form built in WhatsApp to confirm who is coming, and a change of venue that reaches everyone at once.
Law firms, landlords, cooperatives and more
Messaging a list is the part most tools stay quiet about. Meta requires an opt-in and Kenya’s Data Protection Act requires you to be able to prove one. Sema records when and how each contact agreed and handles STOP automatically, which is what makes sending to members and respondents workable rather than risky.
The parts everyone else leaves out
A tool built for another market prices you in dollars, rates you as “rest of the world”, and has never heard of a KRA PIN. Sema is priced, billed and topped up the way a Kenyan business already works.
- M-Pesa
- Top up your credit with an STK push to your own phone
- KES billing
- Priced and invoiced in shillings, not converted at checkout
- Local rates
- Kenyan message rates, not a flat international price
- KRA PIN
- Every statement carries your KRA PIN
- Swahili and English
- Templates and replies in the language your customers use
Questions worth asking first
Do I keep my own number?
Yes. You connect your own WhatsApp Business number through Meta, and it stays yours. If you ever leave, the number and its history go with you.
What does a message cost?
One price for each message, all in, set by its kind, the country of the number and your plan. To a Kenyan number on Growth: KES 3.66 for an offer, KES 0.65 for an update, KES 0.65 for a login code, and KES 0.65 for a reply, with the first 1,000 replies a month on each number free. Sema shows the price before you send anything.
Can I message people who have not contacted me?
Only with a template Meta has approved, and only if they agreed to hear from you. Sema records when and how each contact opted in, because Kenya’s Data Protection Act requires you to be able to show it.
What happens to my customers’ data?
It stays in your workspace. You are the data controller and Sema is the processor. Nobody outside your team can read your conversations. That boundary is enforced by the database itself, not by the interface.
I do not have a bank card. Can I still use it?
Meta bills a card on your WhatsApp account for the messages themselves. M-Pesa GlobalPay gives you a Visa card number that spends from your M-Pesa balance. Paying for everything by M-Pesa through Sema (Sema paying Meta for you) is coming, and this page will say so when it is here.
Can my customers pay me by M-Pesa in the chat?
Yes, into your own paybill or till. Connect your account from Safaricom’s Daraja portal once, and anyone who replies can send the customer the M-Pesa prompt from the conversation; it shows as paid, with the receipt, once M-Pesa confirms it. The money never passes through Sema.
Does the AI talk to my customers on its own?
Only if you switch that on, and only from the answers you have written down. Anything else it hands to your team and says nothing. Drafts are the default: a suggested reply your team reads and sends. The settings page says exactly what is sent to the model and what never is.
Can our own system talk to Sema?
Yes. There is a public API to send messages and templates, check what happened to each, and keep your contacts in step; signed webhooks when something happens, a payment included; and one-time codes over WhatsApp. A flow can also ask your system a question in the middle of a conversation. The API reference is in the Help Centre.
Do I get a KRA tax invoice?
Every top-up gets a statement with your KRA PIN. Transmission to KRA through eTIMS, which makes it a tax invoice your business can claim as an expense, is not live yet, and each statement says so.
Start with the conversations you are already having.
Connect your number, import your contacts, and answer from one place. You can be running today.
No card needed. Your number and its history stay yours.
Rather not set it up alone? We’ll connect it with you, on a call, with your business the owner of everything.