News
New publication on venture capital and the uneven financial geographies of start-up money in Kenya’s Silicon Savannah
Dr. Ben Mkalama (Nairobi Business School University of Nairobi) and Stefan Ouma have just published a new paper on venture capital and the uneven financial geographies of start-up money in Kenya’s Silicon Savannah in the inaugural issue of the journal Finance and Space. Motivated by the view that capital flows in the venture capital industry are not just mediated by meritocratic attributes of the founders but also by raced, gendered and classed social relations with strong historical underpinnings, this paper quantifies and qualifies the uneven financial geography of venture capital investments in Kenya. We map the race, nationality, class and gender of all funded founder teams between 2019 and 2022. Insights from qualitative interviews enrich our findings. The paper’s findings suggest a structural bias against Black Kenyan entrepreneurs, particularly women, who do not have the desirable social networks. The study recommends for the diversification of venture capital supply and reviewing the public policy frameworks governing finance provision to companies seeking growth capital in Africa.
The paper is open access here.