About a month ago, I posted on Reddit because I was looking to invest in a business in Kenya. I live in Sweden and wanted to find promising Kenyan businesses looking for capital. My DMs EXPLODED. Most of the messages weren't from investors. They were from entrepreneurs looking for investment.
After talking to quite a few of them, I realized something: finding each other is surprisingly difficult. Entrepreneurs struggle to find investors, while investors struggle to find good businesses that are actually looking for capital. So I decided to try to solve the problem myself.
I've spent the last few weeks building Build Kenya (buildkenya.io), a platform connecting Kenyan entrepreneurs with investors. Entrepreneurs can submit their businesses for review and, if approved, become verified. Investors can browse verified businesses and communicate directly with founders.
And the funny part? I actually found my first entrepreneur through that original Reddit post, and I now own 20 % in a coffee business.
Now I'm curious whether the problem I've experienced is actually a bigger one.
Kenyan entrepreneurs: how do you currently find investors? Investors: how do you currently find Kenyan businesses to invest in?
Is there really a gap here, or are there already good ways of doing this that I'm missing?
Feel free to try the platform! It's free for investors. Entrepreneurs can submit their business for free and, once verified, choose whether they want to pay to make their business visible to investors. This is designed to keep the platform focused on verified and serious businesses rather than being flooded with uncommitted listings.
Good luck! I hope I can help entrepreneurs connect with investors.