Kipaji is the clearest single proof of the vertical stack: a multi-sided, mobile-money-enabled, media-heavy platform built for a hard market and running in production. Here is how the pieces fit.
Five roles, one role-gated app
Athletes, school admins, scouts, investors, and a super-admin all use one app with strict role gates. Verified school rosters are the trust anchor, a scout is looking at performance a school stands behind, not a self-reported profile.
The stack, by layer
- Edge & media: a mobile-first PWA, with game tape and photos on Cloudflare R2 for cheap delivery to bandwidth-constrained users.
- Identity: Clerk bearer tokens secure a Hono API.
- Data: Neon Postgres holds rosters, matches, and profiles.
- Payments: scout and school billing runs through M-Pesa via Daraja, with idempotent callbacks.
- Comms: notifications reach every device over Africa's Talking SMS, USSD, and voice.
Why it matters
Six-plus layers, one accountable team, one production system. That is the difference between owning the column and brokering it. See the full Kipaji case study, or explore what we can build.