The fourth year of the E4Impact Accelerator in Nairobi (Kenya), funded by the Agenzia Italiana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo (AICS), is ongoing. This innovative service offered at the E4Impact Entrepreneurship Center Kenya has provided a customized acceleration experience to many impact businesses across the Country, since 2018.
As in the past editions, also this year the entrepreneurs taking part in the program have received the consultancy visit of the E4Impact BDA team, which has been involved with the aim of helping Kenyan companies to establish business relationships with the Italian ones.
Between February and March, the BDA members, Maurizia Rota, Giorgio Sartori and Marco Locati, together with the intern and student at the Politecnico of Milan Andrea Siciliano, flew to Kenya for a 3 weeks journey, during which they had the chance to meet the entrepreneurs face to face and to visit the 29 Kenyan companies involved in the program.
The businesses of this edition are located in various counties of Kenya (19 in Nairobi, 7 in smaller cities/towns and 3 in agricultural areas), so the team spent an average of 5 hours a day travelling to meet them. They also cover different fields, in particular: 12 Agrifood (Fruits and Vegetables, Food Processing, Poultry, Honey, Coffee), 9 Circular economy (Plastic Waste, Sewage Treatment, Solar, E-mobility), 4 Fashion & Design, 1 Home Healthcare, 1 Beauty, 2 Financial Services.
Some companies are located in modern offices in Nairobi, others in industrial areas or in agricultural areas. Some are well structured and recognized by certifications and awards, others are in a more initial phase, but they all share the same goal: to create a real impact within their communities. At this purpose, they are constantly looking for new partnerships in Africa, Europe and Italy.
At their arrival, the four E4Impact Italian consultant were warmly welcomed by the entrepreneurs, and an atmosphere of open collaboration was immediately established with all of them. Thanks to the experience gained with the companies of the previous Accelerator cohort, our consultants have been able to streamline the work with this new bunch of companies, allowing the entrepreneurs saving precious time, which is always a scarce resource.
All the businesses deserve a special mention here, but due to space costraints we’ll present only some of them as example of the Kenyan excellences we work with. The first one is Nawasscoal, a public – private joint venture that transforms Nakuru Municipality’s sewage into valuable commercial products and services, through the production of high quality briquettes which are sold to the local market. They also produce biogas that they use internally for their production and are currently testing production of biochar for soil amendment in agriculture. Another goal this amazing enterprise has, is to become able to recover the water from the sewage and make it usable for agriculture or human needs.
They count over 3,150 trees saved and 10,350 trees to be saved in next 5yrs, which represents 8Ha of forest cover. Nawasscoal is looking for Italian and European industrial partners that can bring state-of-the-art technologies in treating sewages.
Moving from circular economy to agribusiness, Afrexgold is a company specialized in the export of tropical fruit, whose mission is to empower the community to care about the environment, as well as to support farmers to get to earn a decent income from their harvest. It works with over 1,200 farmers country wide, local exporters, direct buyers and wholesalers all over the world. Through their seedlings nursery, they are looking at propagating and planting over 80,000 trees in Kangundo area and restoring more than 200 Ha and impacting over 1,500 people. Afrexgold is equipped with first-rate storage and processing systems that processes 60 tons of fruit per hour hand holds all the necessary certifications to export to Europe, where it already sends between 50 and 100 containers per year. The company is highly interested in exporting to Italy, where it is not currently present.
Last but not least we have Timao Group, a social enterprises that addresses the housing crisis and environmental sustainability simultaneously. They recycle post-consumer plastic waste into building material providing an eco-friendly and affordable housing solution, effectively combating plastic pollution. This dual-purpose approach sets them apart from traditional construction methods, making them an innovative triple impact enterprise. Up to now they have saved over 1,200 tons of Greenhouse Gas emission and created over 200,000$ of economic value to the circular economy. They are looking for an Italian partner that is willing to mentor them and share knowledge and know-how.
In general the face-to-face meetings were very useful to get to know deeply the company and understand their needs, but also to evaluate the readiness for a partnership with Italian companies. It has been a win-win experience: the BDA team found communicative and receptive entrepreneurs, willing to embrace their suggestions “on the fly” about possible improvements on specific aspects; but it’s also true that the team itself had the chance to learn something from all companies, improving their understanding of the Kenyan market.
Once they flew back to Italy, they immediately started the actions agreed with the entrepreneurs: looking for suitable Italian companies, willing to establish business relationships with Accelerator’s businesses. To discover what will happend next, stay tuned.
Marco Locati, Maurizia Rota, Giorgio Sartori