Mozilla Funds Seven Uasin Gishu-Based Tech Startups

Seven Uasin Gishu tech start-ups have received funding from Mozilla to improve their products and ideas.

Through the Mozilla Mashinani tech-innovation competition created by Mozilla Africa Mradi and the Gladys Boss Foundation, they have each received Sh1 million. (GBF).

It was distributed during a workshop for students and tech startups held over the weekend in Eldoret.

They include Mche, a comprehensive solution for smallholder farmers, a monitoring software for school buses dubbed My Shule, and Tindo, a video-on-demand filmmaker platform.

Others include M-Rafiki, a platform for people to connect and interact while also being able to access services and businesses that they may need, Lifeline, which offers quick access to vital medical information during emergencies, and Mama Fua, a mobile application that connects households with trained and vetted housekeepers.

Another gainer is Gavo Foods, which manufactures organic, gluten-free, keto flour.

“Mozilla is expanding efforts to build with and not for African communities while promoting models of innovation that empowering, inclusive, and grounded in the unique needs of users in the African continent,” Mozilla Corporation Senior Director Alice Munyua said.

“Critical to this global majority program, is working with local partners to better understand the landscape, local needs, expertise, context, and capabilities, to co-create, while building a community with a critical mass of local partners that see Mozilla as a trusted partner and guide to a healthy and joyful internet,” she added.

The Mashinani Initiative seeks to level the playing field for businesses, especially for youths outside of major cities, through democratizing Kenya’s technology and innovation ecosystem.

By doing this, it would be made sure young Kenyan innovators have access to the data and expertise required to launch and sustain lucrative enterprises.

The effort is based on the Mozilla Africa Mradi, which aims to spark innovation by forging new, closer connections with regional partners to understand how African product demands and capacity shortages overlap.

“The Gladys Boss Foundation (GBF) is working with Mozilla’s Africa Mradi to ensure that tech innovators outside Nairobi and metropolitan counties have equal opportunities and platforms to showcase their innovations, are exposed to how venture capital investments work and are trained on startup accelerator opportunities available to them in the continent and globally,” Kenya National Assembly Deputy Speaker and GBF Founder Gladys Boss said.

The groundbreaking Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge, which will take place in Nairobi in June 2023, will be the culmination of the Mashinani Initiative.

Through an acceleration program that offers technical support, access to incentives, and ultimately market access for their goods, the innovation challenge will find and support tech entrepreneurs, businesses, and tech students.

Kenya, which leads East Africa in broadband connectivity and overall ICT infrastructure and is home to more than 300 tech start-ups, is the region’s ICT hub.

Many entrepreneurs have taken advantage of investment opportunities from venture capital organizations that have established offices in Nairobi as a result of the development of digital technology and the Internet.