5 Tech Startups to Watch out for in 2017

The advancement of technology has led to the development of new ways to do business. Tech revolution is a global aspect improving the way of life of people and Kenya is among the top African countries going big in technology. Tech start-ups are on the rise, each with a solution to a current problems such as farming, unemployment, health, violence, and corruption.

1. M-farm

M-farm limited is a non-governmental organization connecting farmers to potential markets for their produce. Over the past years, farmers suffered losses resulting from lack of markets for their produce. At times, they had to sell their produce for low prices making meaningless returns from all their effort.

M-farm educates farmers on the best practices for bumper harvests. It then helps farmers to directly sell their produce avoiding exploitation from brokers. A mobile application is available making it easily accessible and user friendly.

2. Ushahidi

This App was developed after the 2008 post-election violence with the aim of providing information on violence in hard to reach areas. It has currently grown to providing critical information on other subjects such as environment and human rights among others.

Apart from providing real-time data, Ushahidi also launched solar powered internet devices to keep people in the rural areas connected to the rest of the country. This has been well received in Africa and beyond.

3. Flare

Flare is a mobile app through which users can call an ambulance or fire truck. The average time an ambulance takes to get to its request destination is typically about 2 hours depending on availability and distance. This is sometimes such a long time to wait especially during emergency cases.

Before the App, you had to call the police department for them to transfer your call to an ambulance company. Alternatively, you had to get company contacts to request for an ambulance. Flare has about 50 or more ambulances and 10 fire trucks available to respond to distress.

All you have to do is log in to the app, make your request and track it to your destination. This helps save lives that would have otherwise been lost.

4. Fuzu

The rate of unemployment in Kenya rises daily with universities graduating thousands of students looking to be absorbed into the job market. It is discouraging to be academically qualified and not able to secure a job. Fuzu matches employees with potential employers.

It helps the unemployed professionals write CVs that will earn them employment. It is also a place to learn new skills as it has a number of useful online courses. Fuzu addresses the issues of unemployment in Kenya and has more than 180,000 users.

5. Instaid

Instaid is a tech company whose focus is on eliminating the corruption and inefficiency involved with the distribution of relief food and medicine. In Africa, only $3.5bn out of $17.4bn reaches the intended beneficiaries. Instaid introduced redeemable e-vouchers as an alternative to physical aid.

The e-vouchers are redeemable at selected service providers. This ensures that beneficiaries receive aid from their sponsors. The process is quite efficient and innovative, reducing the logistics behind physical aid such as the time involved in distributing aid.

Conclusion

Incorporating technology to our way of life helps make it easy for the public to access basic needs. This has a positive impact on service delivery and access an area that most Kenyans are dissatisfied. There is always room for improvement and such it is expected that more and more startups will be established this year.