Author: Susan Mwenesi

“Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur. Develop a strong corporate culture first and foremost”— David Cummings Properly managing cultural diversity in the workplace is synonymous to success. If you want to find out the truth in this statement, just take a look at the success registered by Facebook. The workforce diversification combined with work/life balance of this company has propelled it to become the 6th largest company in the world as of 2019. Clearly, this goes to show that combining a workforce from different social and cultural backgrounds can…

theAsianparent, a Southeast Asia community and content platforms for mums and parents, has announced an 8-figure USD sum to launch in Africa starting with Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa as well as expand into other parts of Asia. The Series C round was led by Fosun International, JD.com,  ATM Capital, and Redbadge Pacific, with participation from existing investors Global Grand Leisure and WHG Capital. According to Roshni Mahtani, Founder and CEO of theAsianparent, “Our move from a content platform to a social network wasn’t an easy one, but has significantly accelerated our business to serve as a leading source of information…

Is 2019 the year you will launch your Amazon ecommerce business? If you are planning on launching your own Amazon business for the first time, FBA may be the way to go to build and grow a successful online business. In this article we will cover the basics of selling on Amazon FBA, launching your product and driving sales in order to build and grow your business well beyond your expectations. What is Amazon FBA? FBA is short for “Fulfillment by Amazon”, and is a large fulfilment network by which Amazon essentially arranges shipping of the products you sell. Under…

The apparel industry in Kenya is set to receive a boost with the introduction of threadsol, a range of innovative software solutions for apparel manufacturers. The   ThreadSol solutions- intelloBuy and intelloCut work for the buying floor and cutting floor respectively and ensure reduction in fabric expenses at the buying stage as well as cutting off extra garment pieces at the cutting stage. The overall benefit is automation of the buying and cutting process which ultimately saves hours of manpower in the facilities. These solutions have been adopted by the top manufacturers worldwide like MAS (Sri Lanka), Epic Group (Bangladesh), Raymond…

Ethiopias Cooperative Bank of Oromia has turned to IBM for transformation of its core banking, middleware and database infrastructure to help manage its operations and fuel current expansion. IBM solutions offer the agility for the bank to carry out its most critical IT operations. Cooperative Bank of Oromia, CBO (S.C.)  began operations in 2005 and now serves over 2.4 million customers, with a total of 283 branches and sub-branches in Ethiopia. The bank needed a core banking system that would provide a competitive edge as it enhanced services to expand in the growing market. They tapped IBM solutions to efficiently…

Twenty of the most promising African digital start-ups will take part in the XL Africa residency, the flagship initiative of the business accelerator launched last April by the World Bank Group’s  ) infoDev program. Selected from a pool of over 900 applicants, these start-ups specialize in digital solutions for the African market, including fin-tech, transportation, healthcare, education, human resources, and B2B. All companies provide a digital product or service currently available in one or more African markets and show potential to scale across the region. From Nov. 6-17 in Cape Town, the entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to learn from their mentors…

Kenya has seen a dramatic election period that was characterized by bitter rigging accusations by the National Super Alliance to Jubilee, the ruling party. In the accusations, the country biggest telcom according to subscriber numbers was roped in with the opposition insisting that it aided the ruling party to rig elections. Safaricom has since rubbished the accusations but it looks like the telcom company will be paying heavily for the part it allegedly played in the outcome of the general elections as Nasa, which has since metamorphosed to the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has called on all its supported to…

Good news for all the startups in Kenya as Seedstars World is coming to Nairobi! 10 of the best startups in the city will be invited to pitch during the event, that will be held on 10th November 2017 at the Nailab.  The ten will pitch in front of an investment panel and compete to be crowned the most promising seed-stage startup of Seedstars Nairobi 2017. “The winning startup will join the global Seedstars Family and take part in the regional and global Seedstars Summits that include our tried and tested bootcamp and investor forum. It’s a catalytic platform for…

African youth are the biggest consumers of digital consumers, a fact that points to the need for businesses to seek deeper insights on their marketing strategy around this demographic. This is according to a report commissioned by GeoPoll in June and that sought to understand how youth consumers are interacting with the advertising they encounter from the multiple sources of media consumed daily. “We interviewed 3,710 youth aged between 15-35 years old in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa with the aim of determining the specific media platforms they consumed the ads from and how online advertising is…

Nairobi’s Gro Intelligence has managed to secure funding from TPG Growth, an alternative asset firm middle market and growth platform. The agri-tech company also announced Series A-2 financing led by TPG Growth, as well as  Data Collective and unspecified strategic family offices. Agri-tech is an agricultural analytics company that is helping investment professionals, major corporations, governments and international organizations around the world with insightful, reliable data for solutions in the face of growth in global investment in food and agribusiness. The company, which is also has a New York branch, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide current and future…

Zimbabwean startup Road Rules is the winner of the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) Boostcamp challenge. The startup, which works to educate drivers about Zimbabwe’s highway laws, also wants to equip road users with traffic laws and regulations to help curb corruption on the roads. HiiL hosted the Innovating Justice Challenge to look for startups with innovative ideas related to legal solutions. Road Rules is now 5000 Euros richer and will also attend the HiiL’s Justice Entrepreneur School (JES) in The Hague this December. JES is a business accelerator specifically helps in justice innovations. Tawanda Chikosi of Road rules will…

Payments and Transfers company Kocela emerged the winner of the Payments and Transfer Company category in the just concluded African Fintech Awards. The event, which was held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa was held on 12th & 13th 2017 and saw weeks of voting and intense pitch battles The public was also involved in the choosing of the winners Kocela’s journey to victory started with a nomination to this year’s African FIntech Awards. By any standards, this was an impressive achievement. It meant the African Fintech community recognised them as one of the most promising and…

Three of the largest funders in international development — USAID Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), UKAID (DFID), and an anonymous foundation – are providing outcome funding for the Village Enterprise Development Impact Bond (DIB). Village Enterprise was selected from over 80 organizations to launch the first Development Impact Bond (DIB) for poverty alleviation in Africa. This $5.26M DIB will allow Village Enterprise to further scale its Graduation program by launching an additional 4,600+ sustainable microenterprises over 2 years and positively impacting 13,800+ households in rural Kenya and Uganda. Instiglio will perform the role of project manager and process evaluator, and Global Development Incubator…

High school friends drawn from Ghana and Kenya walked away with top prizes on Monday night at the annual Chattanooga competition that showcases startup businesses. The three young men Jason Oteng-Nyame ( Ghana), and Gabriel Wamunyu and Anthony “Tony” Wamunyu Maina, (Kenya) are the founder of Asili Labs  that won the people’s choice award. The three, who studied together in African Leadership Academy, a boarding school located in the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, are planning to launch Tryall. The latter will be a web and mobile platform that lets users test subscription-based products at no charge. “We have built…

Project Digniti, the brainchild of this year’s TechWomen emerging leaders has won an unspecified amount of money as seed investment for their school sanitation project. The group is made up of Janet Leparteleg, Chao Mbogo, Ruth Kaveke, Topy Muga and Charity Wanjiku who are among the women chosen from thousands of applicants who were interested in the program. “Yeees team Kenya wins TechWomen seed grant to carry on the digniti project aiming to improve toilet sanitation in rural primary schools in Kenya. Thanks to our amazing and dedicated mentors Beth Steinberg Paria Rajai Page Crahan Rahn and Andria Jones. ” “On Friday we, TechWomen team Kenya, pitched on Project…

Have you ever envisioned a situation where all the countries in Africa have a single currency for streamlining settlements, payments and remittance? Are we even ready for it? Well, HyundaiPay and ABA think so because they have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate for the African Union Coin, which is aimed at uniting African countries’ complicated currency markets. The two companies arrived at the MOU came after HyundaiPay held a technical seminar in Johannesburg, South Africa to teach about virtual currency and a blockchain-applied-IoT. This was the first time a Korean company had done such a thing. According…

Are you a startup operating in Africa? Well, here is some good news for you, the European Union wants to sponsor 50 startups to the 6th EU-Africa Business Forum to showcase their technology and services. The event, which will be held in Abidjan will be held on the 27th November 2017. The EU is offering to cover your travel and accommodation cost of 50 EU You can apply to participate in the forum on https://Inkd.in/griNmQk and the deadline is 20 October.      

Financial inclusion and telecommunications expert Topy Muga is one of the TechWomen emerging women leaders in Africa. In fact, The techie is actually a decorated financial inclusion and fintech personality with a very impressive experience in the digital world, spanning thirteen years. However, where did it all start? Topy is actually an alumnus of Alliance Girl’s High School where she sat for her high school certificate and proceeded to the Jomo Kenyatta University for a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Information Technology and a Higher Diploma in Management of Information Systems from Strathmore University. The tenacious lady was also lucky to get…

The impact of technology on journalism is a question that has been asked and answered many times in many forums. However, we are all aware of one aspect of technology and that is it is ever evolving which means we have to keep up with it. In this regard, the Aga Khan University School of Media and Communications (GSMC) has partnered with the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) to study how new technologies have impacted journalism.  IPSOS Synovate will also participate as the implementing partner. From the research, it is expected that we will find out about the challenges and…

As a journalist in the mainstream media, you encounter so many heartbreaking stories and among these is the perennial lack of unemployment in the country. This problem is not only for the people who have not had a chance to get some education but to everyone ranging from those with little education to those with Masters degrees. It is a heartbreaking situation and after covering such stories with a sadder twist here and there, journalist Lillian Kaivilu decided to do something about it! Lillian, who is the founder of a publishing startup Impact Hub media, decided to come up with…

The government of Kenya through the Communications Authority is coming up with a child online protection strategy to protect children from online vices which are rampant and easily accessible to them. According to a research carried out by the Guard Child in collaboration with the University of Hampshire the spine-chilling findings read that, That 70% of our children aged 7 to 18 years have accidentally encountered online pornography, often through a web search while doing homework That 90% of children in this age bracket have seen online pornography and That in as early as 2004 there were at least 3,433…

Mobile-based ordering and delivery network for small shops, Sokowatch has received an unspecified amount of money in investment from the investment arm of Chandaria Industries. The latter is the largest tissue and hygiene products manufacturer in East and Central Africa Sokowatch works by taking goods from various multinational companies and supplying them to thousands of shops upon request which is usually sent via SMS. These orders are then processed through Sokowatch’s system to notify nearby delivery agents, who then deliver the requested orders to shops within 24 hours. “Sokowatch has huge potential for scale and is a great strategic fit for Chandaria…

5 leading women-led startups from Africa have been selected to pitch their innovative digital platforms, apps and solutions to big business, government, investors and influencers in Berlin on 26 October, thanks to a partnership between Lionesses of Africa and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.      According to the Lionesses of Africa, it is often a real challenge for most women in Africa to get access to key global markets. The call for nominations aimed at identifying five inspirational women entrepreneurs to best represent Africa at this unique event was made at the Lionesses of Africa Annual…

Lady luck seems to smiling at South African startup EmptyTrips because just after winning the Chivas Venture Pitching Den at the 2017 SA Innovation Summit, they are set to represent the country at the 2018 Startup World Cup in San Francisco, California. At the meet up, the start stands a chance to win $1 million to grow their business. Basically, EmptyTrips uses smart algorithms to match spare capacity on transport vehicles with those who need goods transported at lower cost. The company realized that many organizations are grappling with logistics and transport costs as transporters have to contend with inefficiencies…

Kenya’s   open source software platform for crowdsourcing, monitoring, visualizing, and emergency response has received a Ksh. 2million ($194 000) grant from Mozilla. Ushahidi caters to people who are caught up in political turmoil or are subject to governmental or vigilante abuse. The Kenyan powerhouse is currently working on ways to make it easier to securely submit reports and documentation on how to deploy Ushahidi while minimising risk to the hosts. “At Mozilla, we were born out of, and remain a part of, the open source and free software movement. Through the Mozilla Open Source Support (MOSS) program, we recognize, celebrate,…

Online retailer and leisure experiences booking service, Cloud9xp founders are a happy and rich lot after they managed to bag Ksh.7.5m in investment from the KCB Lion’s Den enterpreneururs Darshan Chandaria and Wandia. “We raised 7.5 Mil that we intend to use to grow the business and Kick start our all new mobile app that’s going to change the way people book their experiences. We also managed to bring in two strategic business partners in the process,” said Emmanuel Miriti told TechMoran in an interview. Launched in 2015 by fourth-year college friends Emmanuel Miriti, Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, Cloud9xpis an…

Have you ever thought of having your startup incubated in a  place where you have the freedom to work on your business idea 24 hours, seven days a week, live with other driven and passionate innovators, have in-person dinners with thought leaders, industry leaders, and Chief Executive Officers? If you live and work in South Africa, your dream may have just come true as the latest incubator in the city of Johannesburg is a live –in a facility that will let you do all of the above and then some. According to their website, The HackR House, which is the brainchild…

Mobile money services continue to soar in popularity among Kenyans as evidenced by the latest numbers where Kenyans have made transactions worth Ksh 1.2 trillion in the fourth quarter of the 2016/2017 financial year. According to the Communications Authority Sector Statistics report for 4th Quarter 2016/2017 (PDF), the Ksh. 1.2 trillion was the total after adding the withdrawals and deposits from the 480.5 million transactions. Safaricom’s M-PESA led the pack with 22,624,298 subscriptions and Kshs. 904 million in total value of transactions. Equitel money took second position with 1,864,838 subscriptions and Ksh. 312 million in total value of transactions. Mobile Pay…

The director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko has directed that six Safaricom officers and Jubilee Party chief agent David Chirchir be investigated for allegedly playing a role in the flawed general election held on August 8 2017. Tobiko wants the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Ndegwa Muhoro to probe Anthony Gachanja, Robert Mutai, Thibaud Rerolle, Shaka Kwach, Farouk Gaffour and Andrew Masila who the National Super Alliance (NASA) believe colluded with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and French IT firm OT Morpho to hand victory over to President Uhuru Kenyatta. Earlier, Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga sensationally…

Expanded markets by service providers and availability of affordable phones are some of the factors that continue to spur mobile telephony growth in the country. This is according to the Communications Authority report of the fourth quarter for the financial year 2016/17. According to the report, the number of mobile subscriptions stood at 40.2 million, marking a 2.8 per cent growth from 39.1 million subscriptions recorded during the third quarter. When compared to the same period of the previous financial year, a growth of 1.2 per cent was realized. Consequently, mobile penetration rose by 2.5 percentage points to stand at…