NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, May 19, 2014

The startup is one of 37 Kenyan semi-finalists for mobile startups event PIVOT East, which will beheld in Nairobi on June 24 and 25, and is waiting to discover whether it has earned the chance to pitch at the event.

The Tevat platform allows individuals to invest as little as KSh1,000 (US$11) in small businesses in return for small amounts of equity, with Tevat charging startups a commission of 9.5 per cent – one per cent when the project goes live on the website and 8.5 per cent if the target amount is raised.

Co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Waweru Nderitu told HumanIPO the model gives Kenyan individuals and groups the chance to find and invest in high growth potential startups while giving small companies another avenue to investors.

“Tevat came about from our own frustrations from our previous entrepreneurial ventures. We realised how difficult it was for a startup to not only raise capital, but to get mentors and overcome the dogma in the society which puts more emphasis on white collar employment, especially if you have been through university,” Nderitu said.

“We wanted to change this situation and especially have entrepreneurs get an easy and efficient way to access capital.”