StartUp Culture In Kenya : Seed Funding

The high rates of unemployment have rendered youths in Kenya, venturing into entrepreneurship bring hope to the vibrant start up culture in Kenya. However, the uphill task of venture capital firms and angel investors pumping millions of dollars to what appears to be white-led start ups for reasons yet to be understood, raises eyebrows in seed funding for Kenyan startups, led by Kenyans.

Conversation by Stephanie Wachira

[komollorefined]

kazi safi

what remains is comitting to beginning these ventures

[simonmathenge]

I can relate to this as a founder raising capital. It is difficult even to me, despite having a degree in finance.

[nidaclaire]

I wish more people could see this, it's an unfortunate situation. The unfortunate reality is that these investors are more likely to fund their own, as an African you are unfamiliar to majority of the investors, people fear the unknown. If you think about it, trust is the main reason why money changes hands. The only way you can infiltrate these circles is to strategically join a high ranking university abroad complete a couple of impactful projects, work at a multinational tech company, and then and only then, begin to toy with the idea of seeking investment for your own business. Africans literally have to work thrice as hard to make it anywhere in the world

[SundayMebur]

She's good, holds the start_ anecdote close to heart, No Steph?

[zilizopendwa]

Hi there, you quoted many percentages - do you have a report or source data to back your statistics?

[isaiahochieng]

I think heard something like "47, 000%" I guess you meant 47%. However the content is on point👍👍

[MrX-vzkp]

As a person that is going through the seed funding phase, the experience is so terrible that I am at the verge of quitting. The truth is that without a white co-founder there is less probability that even local investors will trust you with their money and I'm speaking from experience as a founder with a technical background. I think of it as a sort of cemented mentality with emblems from the colonial era, where honestly, white was perceived to be better and more trustworthy than black. Black is seen to be less educated, more careless with money, lesser strategic and even unlikely to be in a position of leadership. The sad reality is that this will unlikely change anytime soon and real Kenyan led start-ups may be soon relegated to just programming agencies, as it is currently, and not institutions with both local and global impact.

[kadejeffries]

So what are the solutions? Are kenyans not more exposed ama what is the real issues..

[geopoliticskenya]

I've also seen Western start ups go big off gofund me and kickstarter. Let's now see if our local startups can strike it off that way. In fact if i lack backers I'm going that route, it seems like the best way