Meg Whitman meets Kenyan women in tech ahead of US exchange program

Describing the women as Kenya’s future tech leaders, Ms. Whitman in a social media post on Tuesday said the team discussed ways of removing barriers for women in the oft-male-dominated local tech scene.

“Meet Kenya’s future tech leaders! Fantastic to have joined these talented #TechWomen participants ahead of their U.S. exchange travel to discuss how to remove barriers for women in the tech industry,” tweeted the US envoy.

Africa: The Big Deal ranks the Kenyan startup ecosystem 2nd in Africa in terms of the total funding secured since 2019, with over Ksh.22 billion ($1.9 billion) capital raised from global investors in the past three years alone.

Even so, the number of female-led startups is significantly lower than their male-owned counterparts.

The database places the fraction of investments going to female-owned tech startups at about 6.5% in 2021, meaning that just $1 in every $15 raised in the African startup ecosystem goes to women-owned tech startups.

And although Kenyan female tech founders continue to attract the most funding in the continent, their overall share has fallen over the last two years.

Kenya accounts for 41% of all funding raised by female CEOs in Africa, down from 2019 when it accounted for 61%.

“Two-thirds of $408 million was raised by just 10 female-led startups over the last three years and half of those startups were in Kenya. Kenya actually drives the overall numbers, though its weight is slowly decreasing,” said the report released in April.

Some of the notable female-led tech startups which have recently raised significant funding from global investors include insurtech firm Lami led by Jihan Abass; social commerce startup Tushop (Cathy Chepkemboi), as well as Credrails, a fintech led by Clara Wanjiku Odero.

Ms. Whitman, a billionaire ex-Silicon Valley business executive who formerly served as CEO of Hewlett Packard (HP), has since assuming office last month reiterated her interest in supporting the local tech scene through partnerships with the US community.

In a recent interview, the envoy noted that there is a lot of potential in Kenya’s startup scene, saying “I think it’s very vibrant, but maybe at the beginning of the cycle.”

“What you need to create an even more vibrant tech scene is some large companies: Safaricom, now Google is here, Microsoft, among others. What they are doing is bringing in young tech workers and training them,” said Whitman.

While acknowledging that Kenya’s vibrant tech ecosystem was one of the things US President Joe Biden pointed out when seeking her willingness for the government position, Whitman said a product like mobile banking platform M-Pesa has turned heads in Silicon Valley.

“What Kenyans have to build on are things like the penetration of M-Pesa. I’m not sure that Kenyans realise how impressive this is. In Silicon Valley, we all knew about M-Pesa and were amazed at the penetration and how it had lifted people out of poverty and now everyone in Kenya is banked,” she said.

Whitman similarly pointed out that Kenya needs to invest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for long-term gains, with a special inclusion of girls.

“You need some very good universities who are training computer scientists, mechanical engineers, civil engineers in STEM. I would encourage the leading universities here to think about investing in training more Stem students,” she said.

Whitman added:  “Unless girls major in STEM and go through high school with a good maths and science background, you’re not going to have the women to take the jobs in technology.”

Her appointment came at a time when Kenya has been positioning itself as a regional technology hub and a destination for multinational tech giants as well as global venture capital firms who are pouring millions into local startups.

Google recently became the third company to set up a hub in Nairobi within the past three months, after global digital payments giant Visa and American tech powerhouse Microsoft.