Martin Mbaya of Nairobi Capital on Linking Africa’s Economic Engines to Route 128’s Capital Base …

I am a US based Kenyan national, who personifies ‘The New Argonauts’ as described by UC Berkeley based author AnnaLee Saxenian. I harness my global experience and linkages with African academic institutions including Strathmore University, JKUAT, KCA University and Alliance High School to foster economic development. As a graduate student back in 2007, I set out to explore the Innovation and Financial Services clusters in Kenya – two key pillars of national competitiveness. My current role as co-founder and CEO of Nairobi Capital, Inc., a global mobile money financial intermediary that offers working capital solutions to qualified small businesses in Africa, is the realization of that goal.

Over the long term, we are trying to influence how the global capital markets and various institutions engage their sub-Saharan Africa counterparts. Masschallenge is helping my team to explore how Massachusetts based investors, the US based African Diaspora and various global research universities like MIT and Harvard can have an impact at the microeconomic level. These players provide an enabling environment for the African private sector to create wealth. We are very fortunate to be immersed at the heart of the historic Route 128 corridor – counterpart to Silicon Valley on the west coast.
This past Friday as Kenya ushered in a new constitution, I couldn’t help gazing in fascination past the lively Fan Pier and the busy Boston Harbor as planes arrived and took off at Logan airport. That is exactly where my journey in the US (and ultimately Asia) started sixteen years ago as an exchange student at Brooks School in North Andover. Who knows where the next sixteen will take me – I know the best is yet to come.
 
Martin Mbaya is the co-founder and CEO of Nairobi Capital, Inc. a global mobile money financial intermediary with operations in Kenya offering working capital solutions and business know how to small businesses and individuals in Africa. He serves as an advisor to MIT-AITI and is a member of the MOC Network at Harvard. Over the past decade and a half, Martin has worked in strategy, operations, technology consulting, higher education and finance primarily in Africa, America and Asia.