The Kenyan startup ecosystem is one of the best in Africa. In this guide, you will discover a list of IT companies in Nairobi that are making waves in the Kenyan startup scene.
Top IT Companies in Nairobi
Wapi Pay
Wapi Pay provides a payment gateway for remittances between Africa and Asia. The service enables African businesses to send and receive money through their bank accounts and mobile money payment platforms.
Wapi Pay partners with local banks and platforms across the Philippines, Singapore, India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan. Launched in 2019 by founders Eddie Ndichu and Paul Ndichu, Wapi Pay has exhibited a 300 percent growth YoY since inception. The company looks to onboard over 500,000 African suppliers and 100,000 Asian merchants by the end of the year.
Wapi Pay raised a $2.2 million pre-seed investment, which will be used to meet its target to process $500 million in 2021. To scale the businesses the company will engage regulators for licensing across Africa while also expanding to new regions.
Sky.Garden
Sky.Garden is an eCommerce platform designed for African businesses. The online marketplace allows informal traders and retailers to sell their products directly to consumers. The platform offers merchants a fully stocked inventory management system where businesses can upload products, monitor stock levels, specify price points, and more.
Founded in 2017 as a software as a service platform, Sky.Garden is now home to thousands of local stores. The company raised an initial $1.2 million seed round in 2018. This year the startup raised an additional $4 million Series A round to fund its growth and infrastructure.
This comes a few months after Sky.Garden announced a partnership with Armitruck to create an end-to-end digital chain for the pick-up and last-mile delivery of goods. The logistics startup will enable transportation for Sky.Garden’s over 6,000 commercial clients.
This partnership allows vendors on the platform to reach customers on a wider geographical scale without requiring their own delivery network. This way products purchased will be delivered within 24 hours, and payment made to the seller after the consumer accepts the product.
Armitruck
Armitruck is a digital peer-to-peer logistics service that aims to bring trust and transparency in the transport sector. Launched in 2019, the Nairobi based startup offers a digital platform that connects cargo owners directly with transporters. Primarily, this serves to make last-mile logistics more efficient while eliminating intermediaries who increase the cost of transporting products.
The company has forged strategic partnerships with technology companies such AWS and Google, which allows them to incorporate their innovative platforms and technology underneath the Armitruck logistics platform. Moreover, the company is also exploring the use of IoT to manage its supply chain and logistics network.
The Armitruck digital platform provides APIs that businesses can use to connect the marketplace with their internal systems, such as ERPs and eCommerce sites.
MarketForce
MarketForce is a technology startup that allows consumer brands to manage their field sales activities and grow their local distribution channels. The company offers a mobile app where sales agents record their entire sales pipeline including customers, orders, visits, deliveries, payments and feedback as they occur, giving companies real-time information on the performance of their agents and products in the market.
Founded in 2018, the company raised an initial $350,000 in seed investment that was primarily channelled to their flagship product MarketForce360. According to the company’s site, over $500 million in sales transactions have been processed through its platform. Moreover, the company has partnered with brands mostly drawn from the FMCG industry.
In early 2021, MarketForce launched RejaReja – a B2B trade marketplace that serves retailers and provides an innovative route to market for the top consumer brands in Africa. The app enables companies to leverage the RejaReja distribution network to grow sales.
MarketForce recently announced a partnership with Pezesha, a fintech startup, to provide wholesale distribution financing to merchants. This collaboration will be important to ensure retailers do not run out of stock despite any cash flow challenges.
Sokowatch
Sokowatch is an eCommerce platform that allows informal retailers to purchase stock using SMS or App and have it delivered within 24 hours to their store. This reduces the friction experienced by shopkeepers when sourcing goods from several suppliers and helps manufacturers to ensure their products consistently reach their consumers.
The Kenyan based startup was founded in 2016 with the aim of revamping the supply chain for Africa’s informal retailers. Sokowatch has succeeded in connecting merchants directly to local and multinational vendors. The platform also digitises orders, payments and delivery logistics.
Sokowatch raised $14 million in Series A funding in 2020 to fuel its expansion and streamline its business. This preceded its initial $2 million seed round in 2018. The company now operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. It is important to note Sokowatch offers retailers access to credit and other financial services based on historic purchasing data.
Pezesha
Pezesha is a lending marketplace that connects SME’s to working capital solutions offered by banks, MFI’s and other financial institutions. The Pezesha platform aims to drive financial inclusion and reduce any barriers to access to formal financial services.
The Pezesha platform allows investors to crowdfund for quality SME borrowers and enjoy handsome returns. In addition, companies can utilise the Pezesha lending infrastructure to access proprietary credit scoring services – a cloud-based end to end system – to scale and ensure the durability of their lending operations.
Founded in 2016, Pezesha received the green light to operate in Kenya in 2019 from the Capital Markets Authority after a successful year of testing in the regulatory sandbox. The company also operates in Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana markets.
Kibanda TopUp
Kibanda TopUp is a fresh produce and dry goods digital service that serves commercial kitchens. The Kenyan startup aims to digitise the supply for micro, small and medium-sized restaurants in Africa. Commercial kitchens can order inventory such as grains, beverages, poultry and beef by mobile app through a simple SMS. Orders arrive on the next day.
According to some reports the company has so far managed to supply over 130 restaurants in Kenya. Kibanda TopUp recently raised $460,000 in pre-seed funding, which will go towards hiring supply chain and software engineering experts. This is in line with the company’s growth projections and release of new products.
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