Nabilah Safira
TechInAfrica – Kenya is arguably one of the best countries to roll a startup. It is where an incubator training M:LAB was born, catalyzing the formation of pitching competition for startups, incubators hub, and inviting impact investors and angel investors into the scene.
The Country’s capital, Nairobi placed second after Lagos in a ranking by Startup Blink that nominates the best-city for startup ecosystem. On the world ranking, Kenya is among the four African countries to hit off the list at 52nd.
We have already made a list of Kenyan startups to watch in 2021, and here we will highlight the young startups (founded from 2020 or this year) which is making a breakthrough in a zip.
Let’s read our list of rising Kenyan startups this year:
A relatively young company founded last year with one investor backing their journey, it provides an eco-green ride in its ride-hailing platform with electric motorbikes, which the drivers can own after leasing it.
The startup produces its own meals, and make them available for delivery in under 30 minutes. It aims to expand its current facility to extend food production to daily 5,000 meals. Kune recently backed by investors at $1.1m.
Another delivery startup in the scene that also deliver essentials and additional ingredients (delivered next day), aside from their main food deliveries. The company was founded just this year, and received a total of $460k from investors.
Based in Westlands, Flex Energy is promoting affordable pay-as-you-go monthly subscription of solar grid. The startup dreams to eliminate poor lighting with expensive cost, and making people switch to sustainable off-grid energy alternatives. It recently signed a solar panel installment with Strathmore University, which will have the startup charged with Sh. 12.36 ($0.12) for every unit of solar electricity consumed to the national grid.
The agritech startup focused its impact on smallholder farmers, supporting them from growing seeds to putting them to the marketplace. It also connect farmers with merchants to ease of selling their produces. The company recently raised an undisclosed seed round (Non Equity Assistance) with Food AFrica Accelerator.
Bottomline
Kenya may have received less funding from the government and also globally, nonetheless the ecosystem is thriving and we are certain that there will be new waves of startups and old ones that keep their initiatives fresh and steady.
