Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Sam is a pan-African technology journalist, author, entrepreneur, technology business mentor, judge, educationalist, and a sought-after speaker and panelist across Africa’s innovation ecosystem.
He is the convenor of the popular monthly #TechNight evening event and the #StartupEast Awards and Conference, platforms that bring together startup founders, developers, entrepreneurs, investors, content creators, and tech professionals from across the continent.
For more than 16 years, Sam has reported on and analysed Africa’s technology landscape, covering some of the continent’s most impactful, and at times controversial policies, programs, investors, co-founders, startups, and corporations. His work is known for its independence, depth, and fairness, with a singular goal of helping build and strengthen Africa’s nascent technology ecosystem.
Beyond journalism, Sam is a business analyst and consultant, working with brands, universities, corporates, SMEs, and startups across East Africa, as well as international companies entering the East African market or scaling across Africa.
In his free time, he volunteers as a consulting editor and fintech analyst at Business Tech Kenya, a business, technology, and data firm that publishes reports, reviews, and insights on business and technology trends in Kenya.
Follow him on X: @SamWakoba
Softbank, which owns 1/3 of of Bangalore-based mobile ad network InMobi, has infused $5 million into it and is promising to inject $25 million more to bring new investors on board help make the firm profitable and help quicken its journey to its IPO in the next two years.