We’re set to become first tokenised African tech accelerator – Kenya’s iHub

Kenyan hub and tech accelerator iHub today (8 October) announced that it will digitise all of its company assets using blockchain technology, and claims that this will make it the first tokenised African tech accelerator.

The accelerator made the announcement at the ALN Africa Conference during the ALN Africa Investment Conference which ends today in Dubai.

The hub announced that it is partnering with Raise, a Bahamian and Kenyan startup that aims to make it easier to digitally manage and trade corporate assets by providing a compliant way to securitise assets using blockchain technologies

iHub will work with Bahamian and Kenyan startup Raise to digitise its company assets on the blockchain

In a statement today (8 November), iHub managing director Nekesa Were hoped the accelerator’s move will lead the way for more startups to follow suit.

She highlighted that the accelerator has worked with over 300 startups across various sectors and has supported businesses through more than $300 000 in grant funding. Each startup has an average annual revenue of $350 000.

She said the startups in iHub’s portfolio have raised over $40-million in early and growth stage financing, and a further $1-million in grants. This, while the number of jobs that have been created has exceeded 40 000 in the last five years.

“We look forward to working with Raise to bring further value to the iHub community,” said Were.

Extremely excited to announce that the @iHub is tokenising its assets with @getraise. The iHub is committed to making it easier for our community of start-ups & entrepreneurs to raise the capital they need to grow their business & this is great progress https://t.co/Zf5As7DHbD

— Nekesa J. Were (@Nekesa) November 8, 2018

‘Makes absolute sense’

In the same statement, Raise CEO and co-founder Marvin Coleby said he was “excited” to partner with iHub to create the hub’s security tokens.

He added that he looks forward to the future of creating more accessible and liquid private markets for investors with the use of blockchain-based digital securities in frontier markets.

Coleby added that it “makes absolute sense” for iHub to tokenise its assets as the accelerator has been a “major catalyst” for regional technology innovation in East Africa.

Last week Friday (2 November), the African Digital Asset Framework (Adaf) — where Coleby is a co-trustee — launched in Nairobi, Kenya.

Adaf is the first open-source software platform to create transnational standards for digital assets and distributed ledger technologies in line with Pan-African development objectives.

The framework complements the AU‘s Single African Digital Market initiative, which seeks to leverage technology to stimulate digitised Pan-African economic integration.

Adaf is supported by the AU and the African Development Bank (AfDB). You can read Adaf’s research and development paper here.

Featured image: iHub via Twitter