I have spent some time on their website and can’t seem to find any papers on how they are able to do what they do. What I know is they have been able to do something African governments have completely failed to do (no suprise there, decisons made by governments are rarely evidence-based). I think there is some machine learning/GIS behind it. That website is so basic, they do not even list their donors. I see however one of their investors is the Omidyar Network who do rigorous research and cluster/randomized trials in Africa. I hope one day they publish their data and the impact it will have on reducing poverty, the way data from Safaricom and impact research reports showed that deepening financial access to the underserved and ‘unbankable’ has reduced poverty. Sorry to say this but if having a mzungu CEO is what it takes, wacha akae.
Now the excuse is colleges, not gavament, right? WHEN ARE NIGGAS GONNA TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY? I mean, what education do you need to make maize-cob briquettes? PULIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Many People on twitter and on this forum are calling black Kenyans slow and non-innovative, but as an entrepreneur in this Kenyan Tech market
i can say without fear or favor that being a black founder in the Kenyan market is very difficult to get funding…
I know some personal friends who have been forced by circumstances to get white co-founders so that they can get funding.
I have seen whites with some normal ideas being praised as innovators and getting funded while black kenyans with excellent ideas not even being given a platform to showcase ideas.
But i always want to look at the bright side, this will force us to be better, because you have to be at least 10X better than a white guy to get funded
Also i would encourage our local millionaires to stop investing all their cash in flats,malls and 50X100 plots, if they could fund our tech start-ups and
be part of the over-seeing management that will boost the confidence in the industry.
This I can agree with. Raising capital for a start-up here is almost impossible.
White people wametupita na 2 things in my view.
- Love for big risks. For example, when did you ever see Kenyans jumping from a cliff to fall into a lake 300 meters below? Wazungu live for such thrills. So naturally they will also take big risks in businesses.
- Wazungu have access to cheap capital. A mzungu in Kenya can call mummy in New Jersey for a USD 20,000 assistance. That’s Kshs 2M. And it will be sent within a couple of days. Most of us hata pesa ya kuenda kutibiwa hatupati kwa urahisi. Can you imagine telling your family you want to develop a online platform to track how colds and flu viruses spread in Nairobi by having users click “yes” on the app you’ll develop when they get the virus and the app tracks their movement until they get healed thereby clicking “no”
And then finish by telling your family that you’ll just need Ksh 3,000,000 :D:D
But Kenya is not a basket case like haters of Kenya would want you to believe. We’re decades ahead of where we were 7 years ago and there’s no comparison with other African countries. We have made progress and it’s only a matter of time until those faces in that lineup start switching to black faces that we love to see
So why were you nugus complaining about Cuban doctors?
The reason why an ordinary kenyan who has managed to secure a 100million loan normally invest in a flat is simple; he believes he will get back his money and so do the banks…But a wealthy kenyan kid can easily source 200 million from his dad and his buddies and put it in a risky tech start-up with the knowledge that if the startup fails there is still more capital from where the other one came from.
You’ve hit the nail on the head. As you know, I rarely require gavament to do anything for me or anybody, but this is one area that it can make a difference. I believe if capital was cheap and available, Kenya could be transformed within 10 years. But now we have no angel investors, borrowing rates are at 15% (what could you invest in to make such returns?), and the one or two gavament funds are meant to encourage merchants, not innovators.
Serikali can make a big difference here.
I was talking to a friend Jana and we were condemning the new highway to Mombasa and why we don’t need it. And then it came to me that we don’t need the highway. We need Konza City up and running which US govt can help develop and it becomes a place Silicon Valley can use to penetrate Africa. Gov Mutua should have taken YT2s place while CS of communication Muchiri? should have taken Sonkos place in that group that escorted Uhuru.
Kenya i think is where the United States was in 18-early 19 hundreds, the industrialisation age. Most of these young innovators and CEOs above, their parents invested in real estate and some other tangible investments. From the proceeds, they were able to fund their children’s ideas. Most of us or our parents would go bankrupt if we had mind blowing ideas that required exceptional funding.
You exaggerate. Everywhere I look there is signs of progress.
Being a woman or black founder is one of the most difficult things all over the world, even in the big mighty US. It’s just one of those things that need a culture change. I have previously given my own examples here on Ktalk of the difference between approaching counties by ourselves and approaching counties in the company of white academicians. For example hiyo ya charcoal briquettes using coconut husks, when a mzungu does it it seems so revolutionary while in reality some Kenyans had already started doing it, especially around the Coast, ni vile tu they did not market and promote it as alternative energy. Plus coasterians who do it look at the small picture and day-to-day, a mzungu takes pictures of the process, uploads it on their website and explains how it reduces dependence on trees and impacts cleanly on the environment and takes them to schools and encourages headmasters to buy it instead of charcoal. Having that big picture is really important. One day I do believe we will get there.
For Kenyans to get funding I believe we should do something differently Mr Black up there said, how to put together a business proposition. An opportunity is one thing, putting it together and explaining it as a profitable business is another thing all together.
in 5 years time my startup will be up and running and I won’t take any funding from anyone. It will be fully bootstrapped.
My fren, foreign governments aren’t here to help, they are here because of their own interests first. It’s us who need to fund and build Konza City, if we are waiting for foreigners to do it, tutangoja sana… and if they finally do it, we will be playing lesser mortals to foreigners in our own country.
Twiga is technically a broker who isn’t greedy like the rest, but still a broker.
Ama a broker using tech to his advantage…
Please correct me if I’m wrong but I have always thought there is nothing inherently wrong with the brokerage system, after all it connects a seller and a buyer e.g. NSE brokerage system which I find quite efficient. What is bad about the brokers in agriculture is their exploitative nature. For once in a very long time, my grandmother is not complaining about farming and prices and having to wait, plus the regularity and consistency is good. For example once you call them they come for the bananas immediately and they don’t spoil on the farm and you get your money via MPESA.
Actually people like Tesla were able to get investors na ujue ilikuwa early 19th century in USA. Shida ya sisi Africans hatutambuangi venture capitalism. Tesla angekuwa mkenya tungekuwa bado tunatumia dc power juu rich blacks wangemdharua because he was a youth with radical ideas.
The only investment our looting leaders know is building flats and pampering slayqueens which does little to grow jobs. If youths invent no leaders comments no matter how create the innovation so let’s continue with our ignorance
Twiga i think started as a partnership between the mzungu and a kenyan who is the chief ops. What I know is that kenyans will take the smallest opprotunity to steal and will not nurture some of these startups or social enteprises. So Mkenya anaanza kitu then after a year he gets lets say a grant of $200k to scale up. It could be repayable, equity or even unsecured debt. mkenya naye ni nani, he thinks he can now buy that dream car, apartment or build his dream house with half the grant, na hivyo ndio anaenda and forgets about the startup. I know because I am in that field and have seen our investments being diverted and even some have the audacity to say since a low interest/no collateral loan was a given by a mzungu, it is free money.