In conjunction with the Ntaraza brand,TechBridge Hub will be hosting consecutive branding training following the launch of the program at the hub last Friday.

The event dubbed Ntaraza Brand Training Launch comes at the right time when TechBridge aims to create value and impact to startups and individuals through training on specific disciplines vital in  entrepreneurship. Arguably branding is one of the very key aspects in any business development.

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A brand is how people perceive or see you on the occasion they interact with you or your business. Brand includes both impressions you can control and those you can’t.

This training is geared towards equipping entrepreneurs and individuals with personal branding knowledge and skills.The process of personal branding involves finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on the things you want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them.

The focal point of the training was how one can successfully build a brand. Knowing your target audience and how to speak to them is very important. It is essential to do thorough research of your target audience and identify how to talk to them. For instance the language they like,timing of the message etc.

Being consistent also upholds a brand. Being consistent means using the same company color,slogan,logo and font.This will enhance your uniqueness and help customers familiarize with you easily. Customers usually recognize a brand using the color,logo or slogan they are used to seeing.

An entrepreneur should define his brand’s focus and personality. Choosing the right positioning statement for your brand goes a long way in helping to  stake your claim in the market. Choosing words that associate with your brand helps to inform your voice while communicating.

This  launch signals  consecutive branding training events  in the coming days at TechBridge Hub with the next event happening on 31st March 2020 from 6pm to 8 pm. The training is open to all. To register click on the link:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdkltmfQapmpKH9wEvfijbopLq2vvwuAWO8kq8GLz3VPHnc-w/viewform

No investor will invest in a less sustainable idea or company, this was the bottom line of sustainability training conducted by Nermina Ljevakovic, the Chief Financial Officer for TechBridge Invest.

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A business is said to be sustainable when it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.It is basically the management and coordination of environmental, social and financial demands and concerns to ensure responsible, ethical and ongoing success. 

For a startup to be sustainable it must factor in the Sustainable Development Goals as envisioned by the United Nations Member States in 2015 which is a  universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

The training on sustainability is in line with the social and environmental impact goals for TechBridge Invest including;creation of jobs, innovating affordable products that solve problems for underserved populations and to actively search for and assist business ideas that reduces emissions, wastes or at the least do no harm to the environment.

Sustainable Development Goals provide all businesses with a  framework through which to translate the world’s needs and business solutions. These solutions  will enable companies to better manage their risks, anticipate consumer demand, build positions in growth markets, secure access to needed resources, and strengthen their supply chains, while moving the world towards a sustainable and inclusive development path.

For investors to invest in a company it is key that they understand its sustainability, risk profile and sustainability-related business opportunities. Hence SDGs tend to be a driver for investor and consumer behavior.

Startups should live to achieve sustainable development goals in order to thrive and create long lasting impact in the society.  There is a dire need for startups to adopt circular economy policies which in the long run tend to reduce demand. Responsible consumption and production will help businesses achieve more while using few resources.

Entrepreneurs should embrace science,technological and innovation trends that support sustainable development. The world should put the Information Technology revolution into relevant use to achieve societal sustainability.

Generally as startups try to achieve their development goals or success they should also consider the well being of other people which will eventually contribute in  making a difference in the society.

We are thrilled to have conducted a successful first phase of the 5th TechBridge Challenge at our Startup Hub in Nyali, Mombasa from Tuesday September 17th to Thursday September 19th 2019.

The TechBridge Challenge is a programme where selected applicants get training on business skills to develop a Minimum Viable Product(MVP) in the first phase then further develop their ideas for pitching in the second phase.The second phase majorly comprise of the finals where successful participants with viable business ideas win cash prizes, seed-funding and a place in the TechBridge Startup Incubator for 7 months.

The event graced by the Chairman of the Board of TechBridge Invest Mr. Oyvind Rideng brought together over 35 young participants across the country. The event attracted brilliant ideas compared to the previous challenges.The  ideas drawn from different sectors of day to day life ranged from E-Commerce platforms ,Real estate management, Artificial intelligence,tracking systems,school administration software, medical technology to conservative energy.

The participants were taken through training on reliable business skills essential for any startup.The training comprised of group works with question and answer segments in a bid to make the sessions interactive and learner friendly.

Among the topics presented were Responsible Business Conduct,Culture, Introduction to lean canvas, Design thinking and market survey.This skills imparted on the potential startups will greatly help these young entrepreneurs come up with a Minimum Viable Product(MVP) and a good business plan for their ideas.

Guided by the   lean canvas, the young participants will be able to develop their ideas by focusing on the problems,solutions,key metrics,customer segments, cost structure and competitive advantages so as to get a willing buyer or make a pre-order.

TechBridge Africa is thankful to those participants who took their time to participate and any one who made efforts to ensure the challenge becomes a success.

In this era of advanced technology, TechBridge Invest Africa is keen on incubating startups which tend to utilize technology for a better society.

iShule is one of our startups trying to save time and money by bridging the gap between schools and parents through a mobile app that provides schools with a modern, easy and smarter way to communicate with parents.

The app has the following features; student and school profile,news and events,attendance and results, school fees status and media gallery.

The student profile entails students biodata details like full name, date of birth,enroll date, roll number, stream, home address and parents contacts while school profile will include schools description and location.

On the other hand the app highlights students daily results and results of every test and exams done on the results and attendance features.

The app also ensures accountability since it shows student fee payment  statement by displaying the due paid fees and balances.

Parents are also able to see various events happening in the school and those activities involving the students on a touch of a button.The media gallery stores all videos and images of current and old school events.

Besides, iShule app  works for both smart and feature phones since not all parents have smartphones and they are able to receive timely SMS notifications.

TechBridge Invest Africa is  proud to be associated with such a noble initiative. The 5TH TechBridge Challenge will ensure  that good business ideas get trained, mentor-ship and sufficient seed funding to be able to establish a company, develop the product idea and test it in a real market.

The TechBridge Incubation Hub based in Mombasa County in Kenya works  with early stage startups developing disruptive and innovative solutions to  address community challenges.  

TechBridge Invest Africa (TBIA) supports dedicated, dynamic and ambitious youth with business ideas and early stage entrepreneurs building their entrepreneurial prowess  with substantial and lasting effect in our society.

Over the past 2 years since inception, TBIA has substantially mentored, trained and invested  Brance Technologies; standing out as one of the most promising startups that have come out of the TechBridge incubation program.  Brance Technologies is set to be a gamechanger in providing innovative technical security (TECHSEC) systems to homes and business premises at an affordable cost. Brance uses artificial intelligence technology to  identify and collect mobility data, providing detection and valuable insights for various segments.

We laud Brance Technologies for their selection to demonstrate their product to His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, president of the republic of Kenya and His Excellency Hassan Ali Joho, governor of Mombasa County during the 2019 Agricultural Society of Kenya (A.S.K) Mombasa International Show.

The opportunity to have startups from the TechBridge incubation program showcase their minimal viable products (MVPs) to the market stamps TBIAs valuable contribution to the Kenyan innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.  The head of state expressed interest to learn more about the TECHSEC innovation by Brance Technologies; he asked his protocol officers to follow up on the product and run it by the Cabinet Secretary of ICT, Hon. Joseph Mucheru. 

We are happy to be associated with Brance Technologies and would like to ascertain our full commitment and support to the team

The annual Mombasa international show hosted by the Agricultural Society of Kenya took place last week in Nyali,Mombasa with the theme being “Promoting Innovation and Technology in Agriculture and Trade”.

As a hub for investing in technology and innovative ideas we congratulate our startups who participated in the innovation and technology competitions and emerged best. The competitions which was organised by the Mombasa county department of Information Communication Technology categorised the startups and ideas based on the Kenya Big four Agenda.

Solar egg incubator a startup which came up with  a solar power enabled egg incubator that ensures hatching and healthy chicks attained the second position in the food security and nutrition category.

Brance Technologies which is  incubated at our hub scooped the second position in the affordable housing category. Brance Technologies is artificial intelligence that identifies and collects data on people and moving vehicles, providing detection and valuable insights for various segments.

In the universal health coverage segment, were were represented by Huduma Fasta which is a revolutionary emergency mobile app that tries to connect the society to emergency services like ambulances and fire engines.

One of the key goals of Techbridge Invest Africa is to see ideas grow into viable business ventures.We are glad to have worked closely with Growth Africa to help young entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurial journey.

Growth Africa  is a leading acceleration and growth partner for African entrepreneurs and companies scaling their business in and across Africa.They focus on growing successful enterprises, innovations and entrepreneurs in Africa through business acceleration, strategic advice and access to investments.

Growth Africa through their Project catalyst, Kanana Mwiti- Njuguna conducted a one day investment event dubbed investor readiness workshop at our hub in Nyali on the 27th August 2019. A total number of seven startups were present in the day long event.

The startups were taken through the whole investment process in details. The workshop  provided the  young entrepreneurs with a better  understanding of the appropriate business capital including scope of preparedness for startups seeking capital, investor readiness process and how to structure their investments at various stages of business growth.

At Techbridge Invest Africa we remain upbeat in giving entrepreneurship training and customized mentoring to startups which will go a long way in creating jobs to the young population and also solve societal challenges using affordable products.

Techbridge Invest Africa boasts of a pool of personnel with a deep and  longtime background in developing startups into profitable companies around the world.

This is evident through our Chair of the Techbridge Invest Board Oyvind Rideng who has a long track record in developing companies, especially those dealing with software technology.

Rideng is proud to have successfully built, grown and sold several companies with a considerable profit.He believes in getting things from an idea to a functional business and also creating a possible solution from what is seen impossible.

Among the companies he has invested and develop  is Systems in Motion, 1994 and managed to scale it up into one of the world’s leading companies in advanced 3D visualization.

Rideng aims at supporting entrepreneurship in Africa in a bid to develop new sustainable business and employment informed by the alarming rates of unemployed youth in Africa specifically Kenya. He believes youth must be given practical entrepreneurial skills and not a much theoretical approach system of education.

On the view of seed funding and startup capital, Rideng has a keen eye on providing seed money to startups in a way to prepare them for further investments because it is through initiatives like the Techbridge Challenge https://www.techbridgeinvest.com/challenge which gives a platform to aspiring entrepreneurs to be trained, mentored by high profile and experienced mentors and receive seed funding.

Being the Chair of Techbridge board he has spearheaded the start of programmes like the Techbridge challenge by virtue of giving an opportunity to young innovators,inventors,makers, entrepreneurs and coders  to turn their ideas into viable businesses.

According to Rideng, Africa has the potential,aspiring innovators and a ready market and as an expert in leadership and investments from Norway  he sees the possibility of contributing to 122 million jobs in the Sub Saharan Africa since only 28% of the workforce is employed on a permanent basis.This can,among many other measures  be achieved by creating a favourable environment for technological advancements to thrive as seen in most developed countries in the world.

At Techbridge Invest Africa, we remain committed  to creating value in a socially and environmentally responsible way hence creating positive impact to the society. We highly recommend innovations that solve societal problems and as Techbridge hub we provide an ample environment for innovators to thrive.

In our first Techbridge challenge in 2016, we worked on idea generation for a solar solution using technology to reach the rural poor. We also recruited many of the young student entrepreneurs to grow into a startup SUNami Solar. 

Together with the founding members we built SUNami Solar Ltd  into a successful venture providing affordable solar power to homes and small businesses in Kenya, and later on in Uganda. 

The company offers off-grid electricity to marginalized areas through a pay-go solution . At a time where Kenya and East Africa is grappling with high cases of unemployment, SUNami Solar will not only ensure access to renewable energy but also  provide income generating appliances and thereby contributing to creating new jobs, reduce poverty and increase societal inclusion.

SUNami solar offers a wide variety of product packages ranging from basic light with charging,hair shaver, water pump,TV and cooler box packages.This will go along way to contribute to local income generation hence customers will  raise their standards of living,which is one of our pillars at Techbridge invest Africa.