The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) is keen on linking Start-Ups to financial partners ready to invest in growing new businesses in Kenya.

The emergence of new technology has given rise to an increase of Start-Ups in the global market. Start-Ups  play an important role by contributing to a country’s revenue  basket and thus focusing on their sustainability is key for any country aiming to an improved economy.

In partnership with Seedstars and Investera Plus Africa, the Chamber of Commerce today held a Start-up Entrepreneurial Networking Forum at Nairobi Garage in Westlands-Nairobi.

Investera Plus Africa is an African business resource centre that brings together businesses, government and investors from across the world.

The Forum attracted 22 start-up businesses that were able to pitch themselves for consideration for the Seedstars financing program.

Seedstars is a Swiss-based private group of companies whose mission is to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship.

In his remarks at the forum, KNCCI 1st Vice Chamber President Dr. Erick Rutto expressed that start-ups are scalable and thus need to be supported to exploit their potential and to operate with minimal challenges to be able to contribute optimally in enhancing the country’s economy.

Dr. Rutto acknowledges that Kenya has skilled innovators and this is evidently revealed by the huge number of emerging start-ups in the country.

“We pride in being the first country in Africa to innovate a mobile banking platform- Mpesa, said the 1st Vice Chamber President.

The Forum was also attended by the chairman of the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) Mr. Kiprono Kittony who highlighted that in order to build the trade sector in the country, it is important to invest in start-ups. The NSE Chair stated that NSE integrates enterprises and demonstrates to them best practices to boost enterprise development in the country. Mr. Kittony called on all key players with funding programs to chip in and finance startups to grow either through capacity building, loans or grants.

Accordingly the state Director for Information Communication Technology (ICT)  Mr. Timothy Were indicated the need for the government and the private sector to team up and work on modalities to support the sustainability of start-ups in the country.