Why Africa? Top 5 Reasons I Launched My Startup in Kenya
In 2012, my cofounder and I moved to Kenya to launch East Africa’s first online recruiting platform, Duma Works.
People ask me all the time why we decided to move to Kenya to launch the company. In light of all the incredible things happening today with the GES Summit, I thought I would share my thoughts on why Kenya is one of the most compelling places in the world to start a company right now.
1. The Energy
There is a reason the 6th Global Entrepreneurship Summit is being held in Kenya this year.
There is also a reason Nairobi is one of the places investors are now looking towards when they think about emerging markets. Kenya is one of Africa’s fastest growing innovation hubs. Yes there is some hype around Kenya being the “Silicon Savannah.” However, you can’t deny that the energy in Kenya around entrepreneurship is palpable.
Africa’s economy is and will be among the fastest growing in the world. The population is young and eager — 75% of all Kenyans are under the age of 30. The middle class is growing.
Startups born and raised in Kenya like BRCK and M-KOPA are leading the discussion around innovation in their space.
With this good energy comes good press opportunities, more investors (especially diaspora Kenyans and institutional investors), and a bigger pool of super smart Kenyans with a passion to work in new startups. I can’t wait to see what Kenya looks like in 5–10 years and know I was a part of it.
2. The Social Innovation
Different countries have investment ecosystems with varying degrees of social consciousness. In Kenya, there is a lot of energy and support around the social innovation. Living in Kenya gives you the opportunity and support to launch a startup that is solving some of the world’s biggest problems.
In that sense, I think the Kenyan startup space is actually more interesting than the American startup space. In America, startups are all about optimizing existing infrastructure. In Kenya, you are building the infrastructure and can reinvent and reimagine what it should look like.
Plus, investors and programs like Novastar Ventures, Unreasonable Capital, Village Capital, Acumen, and the Eleos Foundation are backing up entrepreneur’s socially-driven ideas with startup capital. Now that there has been an exit in the startup tech space with Wezatele, perhaps more investors will come chasing the profit bottom-line and social impact opportunity.
3. The Pitch Opportunities
When Duma Works got started, our first capital was from competition earnings. Our first champions were people who came to listen to us talk and who bought into the idea. The reason our business evolved in the early days was because of the feedback we got from judging panels and thoughtful audience members.
In fact, Duma Works recently won another excellent pitch competition — Pivot East. We won the Enterprise category, and we benefitted from press, exposure, and great feedback from the audience.
Furthermore, my good friend and another fellow with me at The Unreasonable Institute East Africa is called Yvette Ondachi. She started a company called Ojay Greene that helps smallholder farmers connect to larger markets to earn better incomes and she just won the Pitch for Impact prize of $100,000 to jumpstart her company.
Honestly, money like that in Kenya is rare to find, and this competition prize will allow her to hire the key personnel, continue optimizing her systems, and execute on her growth strategy immediately.
Now, she won’t have to raise equity and give away more of her company to her investors. Thanks to Yvette and Pivot East, I am reminded of the opportunity pitch competitions provide and how lucky we are to have them.
4. The Community
Having a space for idea sharing is probably one of the most powerful tools an entrepreneur can have. Startups in the USA formed initially around universities in California. And it makes sense — college is one of the best places in the world for breaking rules, innovating new ideas, and late night discussions that challenge your core views of the world.Without a community to bounce ideas off of — ideas can fester and die because they haven’t been given enough oxygen.
The fact that places like the iHub, Savannah Fund, the Nailab, the m:lab, the Startup Garage, Growth Africa, Strathmore’s iLab Africa, exist is a huge deal. These communities not only provide space to the entrepreneurs, but they also give corporates a place to roll out new initiatives. For example, IBM just launched a new Innovation Space at the iHub today which should open up even more opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Plus, you get to be friends with amazing people, like Molly from Bicycles Against Poverty, Toni and Kago from Eneza Education, and Judith from AkiraChix — who was featured in the GES Summit and was on a panel with POTUS President Barack Obama today!
5. The Freedom + Mobility
My friend Jennifer, from Miti Health in Kisumu, told me the other day that she finds that as you travel and live in weirder places, the world gets smaller. Case in point, she was telling me this after she got back from a race in Jinja, Uganda where she met up with her friends from Kigali and Washington DC.
My friends and parents always ask me when I’m coming back to the USA to live. Aside from wanting to see me, the thought is that there are more cool opportunities and people to meet in the USA. But the thing is, with my job as startup cofounder, I travel more than I would get to living in the USA. My proximity to interesting places increases. In Kenya, I am closer to Europe, India, the Middle East, cool islands and places like Zanzibar.
By “limiting” myself and living in Kenya, I think my world has actually gotten bigger.
Oh, and let’s not forget how beautiful it is here…
We love it in Kenya and we think you do too — welcome to share reasons you love entrepreneurship in Kenya here.
If you are interested in learning more about using Duma Works to hire or get a job, I can be reached over email at arielle@dumaworks.com
PS. If anyone is going to be in Kampala Uganda on July 31st, there is an amazing opportunity to come to Unreasonable East Africa’s Launchpad and listen to the most unreasonable social-driven entrepreneurs in East Africa! Buy tickets here.
