Digital economy blueprint

iii. Little Cabs – Launched in partnership with Craft 

Silicon and Safaricom, Little Cabs is a taxi hailing 

service in a competitive ecosystem with other play-

ers such as Uber, Taxify, Mondo Ride and Maramo-

ja. The local company has successfully innovated 

around the unique transport ecosystem in Kenya, 

and in 2018 launched a shared public SHUTTLE 

solution, a first of its kind, allowing users to book 

spaces in public buses operated by the company.

iv. Wezatele  -  Weza  Tele  provides  a  number  of  in-

novative value added mobility solutions in com-

merce, supply chain and distribution and mobile 

payment integration. Its solutions are in use in 

Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. In 2015, 

the  company  was  acquired  by  financial  services 

group AFB for US$ 1.7M. At the time, this was 

one of the largest acquisitions for a tech startup in 

the country.

v.  Sokowatch – A local startup that aims to digitize 

informal retailers in Africa, connecting them to 

local and multinational suppliers such as Unilever 

and  Proctor  and  Gamble  –  by  digitizing  orders, 

delivery and payments with the aim of reducing 

costs  and  increasing  profit  margins.  In  2018,  the 

B2B e-commerce company closed a US$2M seed 

investment led by 4DX Ventures.

vi. BitPesa - A digital foreign exchange and payment 

platform that leverages blockchain settlement for 

fast, cost-effective payments to and from Africa.

The startup has so far raised approximately $10M 

in funding including companies like Greycroft, a 

well-established venture capital firm in the U.S.