Tech talent in Kenya has developed faster than business and legal infrastructure, leaving an unstructured environment hindering tech startups, according to Harvey Herr, co-founder of local startup MapJam.co.ke.
MapJam is an intelligent web-map and community web-application, which features businesses and events around Kenya, and allows users to interact and give feedback within the platform.
The platform is intended as a marketplace for businesses and consumers to interact, providing enhanced accessibility for businesses and helping them to reach out to customers, while facilitating searches by consumers for specific products, businesses and events as well as a channel for feedback and reviews.
In an interview with HumanIPO, Herr said while the tech sector in Kenya is still wide open to new entrants, the total lack of clarity and limited business infrastructure poses an obstacle to success for entrepreneurs.
“The massive pro is that there is a huge pool of talent and ultra-fast learners beating the curve, the con is that this talent has accelerated much faster than the business and legal infrastructure,” said Herr.
“Actually we are in a situation whereby there is basically no business and legal infrastructure to accommodate tech-business.”
He said this leaves many startups, such as his own, facing uncertainties.
“Starting a business in Kenya is still an extremely archaic process, it took us around six months to complete,” he said.
“Aside from what I have mentioned earlier, I think that the market is open and if you can create value for your users then you can make it.”
The prevalence of international investors also has contrasting impacts, Herr said, in that while financing is available from these companies, local finance sources are suppressed.
“There is a lot of money being spent on trying to capture various local markets on the web, and much of this money is coming from Europe whereby a company will come in with a pre-defined model,” Herr said.
“This has the impact of making it seem like these players are in dominance and may make it more difficult to source investment locally, however it does not necessarily make it more difficult to compete.”
With this in mind, MapJam – which is focusing on getting offline businesses online and enabling customers to easily find and discover businesses – has the potential to expand into a multi-billion dollar business with a footprint across the African continent within five years, Herr said.
“In five years time I see us as a multi-billion dollar company assisting all scales of commerce across the African continent,” he said.
According to the co-founder, MapJam aims to become the eBay for Africa, and be a catalyst for economic development.
“I see us facilitating massive volumes of trade at micro-scales utilising crypto-currency advance selling based on volumes of willing buyers,” Herr said.
“I see us as the company that will enable millions of informal merchants to leverage the web as a business operating platform. So I see us as having a similar economic impact as eBay.
“I hope we will have a pronounced effect of leap-frogging economic development by exponentially: expanding markets, enabling specialization, and reducing the cost of selling through automation.”
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