Standard Chartered Plc’s charitable arm awarded 9 million Kenyan shillings (about $70,000) in grants to seven women-led technology startups, part of a program aimed at closing the funding gap for female founders in East Africa’s largest startup market.
Each of the seven companies will receive 1.29 million shillings to fund product development and expansion, the Standard Chartered Foundation said Tuesday in Nairobi. The winners were picked from 15 startups that graduated from the 12-week Women in Tech Kenya Accelerator, now in its ninth cohort.
The program, run with Village Capital and Strathmore University’s @iBizAfrica incubator, has backed 107 Kenyan startups and disbursed more than 51.5 million shillings since it began in 2017. Globally, the accelerator operates in 14 Standard Chartered markets and has supported more than 4,000 entrepreneurs, the bank said.
Judges scored applicants on business model, market opportunity, innovation, growth potential and social or economic impact. The winning companies focus on agriculture, health care and education, sectors where technology startups in Kenya have drawn investor attention:
- Premac Care: connects families with trained health-care workers for maternal, newborn and elderly care
- ChipuRobo: sells locally made kits for AI and robotics education
- FishBox Africa: AI-powered farm software and smart feeders for fish farmers
- Uptyke Consulting: AI-powered digital learning for students with disabilities, using sign language and audio
- Nakuru Tubers: links smallholder farmers to verified farm inputs and last-mile distribution
- Trident Analytics: IoT and AI tools for small-scale aquaculture farmers
- Seta Farm: grows mushrooms from organic waste and creates income for women and youth
“Women in Tech goes beyond capital by providing the skills, networks and support women entrepreneurs need to build sustainable businesses,” Birju Sanghrajka, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Kenya, said at the ceremony.
Strathmore Vice-Chancellor Vincent Ogutu said the program has grown from a three-way partnership in Kenya into one that spans 13 countries.
The grants are small by venture-capital standards, but early-stage funding for women-led companies in Africa remains scarce.