Walking the startups journey in Kenya: Documentation of successes and pitfalls between 2010-2020
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Date
2022
Authors
Muathe, Stephen
Sang, Paul
Kavinda, Lucy
Letema, Sammy
Maina, Samuel
Chelule, Kenneth
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SSBFNET
Abstract
Over the last 10 years, maturity of the business landscape has unlocked new opportunities in Africa,
especially the entry of accelerators, incubators, and other start-up ecosystem players. These organizations are
constantly adapting their models to respond to the ever-changing needs of the ventures they support. Therefore, there
is need for existing literature to keep abreast with this vitality to strengthen the ecosystems in Kenya. The paper
analyses the drivers, challenges and opportunities within the start-up ecosystem in Kenya. The paper is based on
cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Human-centred purposive and proportionate stratified random sampling
techniques were used to select a sample of 74 respondents who filled an electronic survey; coupled with interview of
50 start-ups ecosystem players. Descriptive statistics and content analysis was used in data analysis. The study
reveals that Kenya has made significant strides in the start-up scene, however, there is a heavy concentration of
activity in Nairobi the capital city, leading to disparity within the country. Opportunities for collaboration are
bypassed in favour of duplication of programs and consequently funds that should ultimately support entrepreneurs
are spread thin. a number of challenges bedevilled start-ups, access to financing and risk capital, lack of sector
coordination, weak start-up culture, me too businesses, insufficient policies and guidelines on incubation and
commercialization, and lack of a robust monitoring, evaluation and learning system. The study recommends that the
national government should provide matching funds for venture capital, standardization and decentralization of
innovation and incubation centres countrywide, central database for start-ups and sensitization and awarenessbuilding programs on intellectual property rights among start-ups.
Description
Article
Keywords
start-up, challenges, ecosystem, incubation, accelerators, tech-hubs, Kenya
Citation
Muathe, Stephen & Sang, Paul & Kavinda, Lucy & Letema, Sammy & Maina, Samuel & Chelule, Kenneth. (2022). Walking the startups journey in Kenya: Documentation of successes and pitfalls between 2010-2020. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147- 4478). 11. 387-400. 10.20525/ijrbs.v11i8.2159.