Video: Kenyan climate-tech incubator has big plans for Africa
Kenya Climate Innovation Centre (KICC) is increasing its efforts to promote green climate start-ups in Africa, beginning in Kenya and expanding to Uganda and Tanzania.
That’s according to Elizabeth Odima and Jackson Mbugua, who are both business analysts at KICC.
KICC provides incubation, capacity building, and funding options to entrepreneurs and new, small and medium-sized businesses that are developing technologies to meet the challenges of climate change.
In a recent video interview with ITWeb Africa, Odima and Mbugua shared key insights regarding KICC's role as a supportive entity for climate sector enterprises specialising in waste and water management, renewable energy, commercial forestry, and agribusiness.
The discussion included start-up needs and ecosystem challenges, which KICC said included a lack of commitment from some enterprises and an overdependence on incubators.
Furthermore, during the conversation, the two emphasised the need of encouraging collaboration among innovators and developing a single database to bridge the gap between investors and support organisations.
Odima explained to ITWeb Africa how the organisation operated, saying: “KICC is a social impact organisation that supports enterprises in the climate sector. Currently we are supporting enterprises under five key thematic areas around climate. That is enterprises in waste management. We have water management, renewable energy, commercial forestry or what we refer to as nature based solutions and agribusiness.”
When asked to explain the criteria KICC uses to identifying companies that it supports, she said: “Yearly call for applications and being a climate related organisation. Our matrix or what we look for is first the innovation.
“Is that idea innovative enough? You have to come up with a new thing. Innovation can be very simple. Are you doing something different and in a different way? Number two, we look at the climate angle of that idea or that business. So, we are keen on two things, that is climate mitigation and climate adaptation.
“So, when we look at an application, does it answer challenges around climate adaptation or climate mitigation? Another key matrix is the ability for that idea to create employment. Because as when we are living in a country where unemployment is a key challenge, especially for the youth and women. So we look at that application like, how many jobs have you created so far? And if we invest in you, how much will the investment result into employment as well?”
Mbugua added: “When it comes to the kind of enterprises that we support, it’s from the program design; we have programs that are designed to support both ideas and existing businesses. But we also have programs that are purely designed to support businesses that are in actual existence.”