This guidebook covers emerging startups, accelerators, investors and support institutes in this vibrant business hub in East Africa.
Launched in 2012, YourStory’s Book Review section features over 285 titles on creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation. See also our related columns The Turning Point, Techie Tuesdays, and Storybites.
The Startup Guide series of books, launched in 2014 by Copenhagen-based publisher Sissel Hansen, covers over 40 cities around the world. See our reviews of the guidebooks for New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Munich, Zurich , Paris, Barcelona, Stockholm, Vienna, Johannesburg , Cairo, Tokyo, Bangkok, and Singapore.
Startup Guide Nairobi is spread across 200 pages and makes for an informative read, with profiles of founders, co-working spaces, incubators, and other ecosystem players. The whole book series is insightful, superbly illustrated, and well-designed. “In recent years, Nairobi has developed a thriving startup scene and made a name for itself as a tech hub – so much so that it’s been dubbed Silicon Savannah,” Sissel Hansen begins. Fintech and ecommerce startups rub shoulders with impact-driven entrepreneurs, and the entrepreneurial youth have a strong focus on founder purpose and mission.
The Kenyan capital is regarded as “the mother of mobile money” and “a mecca of innovation and diversity,” according to Esther Mwikali Muia, General Manager, Mettā Nairobi. The city has more than 200 tech-focused startups, and offices of tech giants Google, IBM, Intel and Microsoft.
Notable progress has been made recently by startups like Twiga Foods (connecting farmers to markets via mobiles), Cellulant (digital payments platform), and M-Kopa (solar energy). Overview
With a population of around 4.5 million, Nairobi has been ranked as the sixth-wealthiest African city, and a friendly city for startups as well as expats. In 2019, Kenyan startups reportedly raised $428.91 million (the second-highest in Africa).
One section of the book provides an overview of the city’s business environment and lifestyle, such as people (extremely entrepreneurial), traffic (congested), market prices (‘negotiable’ in outdoor stores), weather (mild year-round), and transportation (“much-maligned matatu minibuses).
Mobile money app M-Pesa paved the way for a range of other fintech players and products. A range of ISPs is active: Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom Kenya, Zuku, and Faiba. I. Startup profiles
One section of the book profiles nine startups based in Nairobi, with inspiring origin stories and business descriptions. They include Safi Analytics (cloud-based operational platform for factories to improve productivity).
Ajua provides businesses with customer-experience analytics like mobile […]