Kenyan Startup Grows To Reach 150k Entrepreneurs

Kenyan startup and online community for young entrepreneur, MESH, has announced that it has reached 150,000 members.

Launched in November 2021, MESH connects young entrepreneurs and small business owners to vital networks, tailored training content, and access to opportunities and services in the formal economy. This new growth milestone follows a one-year partnership with Mastercard Strive Community and Caribou Digital.

The Mastercard Strive Community is a philanthopric program for the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth while Caibou Digital provided early stage grant funding and technical support to develop and scale MESH.

With an additional early stage investment from Shujaaz Inc and funding from TRANSFORM, MESH was founded with a mission to unlock the potential of the informal economy in Kenya. New research also shows that 95% of young Kenyans work in the country’s informal sector, with 15-24 year-olds adding USD 520 million to the Kenyan economy every month.

Young entrepreneurs in the informal sector face significant barriers to growth. Often loans, services, and work opportunities in the formal economy are out of reach. Their networks are limited to family and friends, and they don’t have access to the relevant tools and training they need to start up and scale up their businesses.

Meanwhile, major corporations – from multinational fast-moving consumer goods companies (FMCGs) to telecommunications providers and financial institutions – say they are struggling to reach this sizeable consumer market and tap into the potential of these entrepreneurs.

With the backing of its early-stage supporters, including Mastercard Strive Community, MESH is changing things by challenging traditional conceptions around employment and redefining what the future of work looks like economies like Kenya’s.

“The early stage grant funding and support of Strive Community has been instrumental in enabling us to build, start up and scale MESH. We’re so proud that MESH is now connecting 150,000 young entrepreneurs to each other – and for the first time, to valuable gig work and training opportunities with our growing community of commercial partners. In particular, the partnership with Strive Community has been instrumental in helping us to refine, test and scale our innovative learning models that are enabling thousands of small business owners to build the real-world skills they need to thrive,” Anuj Tanna, Co-Founder and CEO of MESH commented.

The funding from Mastercard’s Strive Community has supported MESH in testing, designing and scaling its innovative training model, enabling young people to learn in bite-sized, peer-led, digital-first formats – in their own language and on their own terms.