Kenyan Company Digitizing Africa’s Creative Economy Joins UK Kenya Tech Hub Platform

Muthoni Unchained, a company whose culture hub and online marketplace for artisans is empowering Africa’s creative economy, announced today that they have been selected to join the Legends Jasiri Edition- a revolutionary platform conceptualised and implemented by the UK Kenya Tech Hub in conjunction with CIO East Africa.

On their website, they say the intent of the platform is “to showcase 10 tech entrepreneurs aka gems in Kenya. These are not just any ordinary techpreneurs.”

The conditions are that they must not only be in business, but their tech solutions also need to have impacted their communities, solving big problems that plague us.

The Legends – Jasiri Edition tells the stories of 10 successful entrepreneurs; their journey, lessons, obstacles, successes, failure, and what it takes to build a business.

It’s worth noting that a total of close to 100 start-up techpreneurs applied for the project and thorough evaluation of their stories, the tools, and tech used to run these businesses – 10 startups were picked.

Muthoni Unchained facilitates a one-stop-shop for African handicrafts where artisans, raw material providers, customers, financial institutions, knowledge partners and retailers are brought onto one platform where they can trade directly through their marketplace platform aptly named CULTURE HUB.

Since the pandemic has greatly affected the state of tourism across many countries, purchases of products made by artisans have significantly dwindled. Muthoni Unchained has created a larger market for African artisans to sell their crafts; and on the other hand, for the consumer to conveniently access cultural crafts from all over Africa.

In line with the requirement to impact the community through empowerment, the company offers artisans financial services to boost their production and secure their financial futures. They additionally provide training services for best practices to ensure they produce items that can compete in the global market.

Announcing their selection to the cohort, Jennifer Nyambogo, Co-founder and Creative Director at Muthoni Unchained said, “This year, we have seen a surge in the number of vendors on our platform. There are still limitless possibilities for innovation in the space. We believe that this Jasiri platform will expose us to new markets and opportunities.”