A new study has revealed the outsized economic role played by high-growth companies in Kenya, finding that tech and tech-enabled firms that scale to 50 or more employees are responsible for nearly 80% of jobs in the country’s entrepreneurial tech sector, despite making up only 15% of it.
The research, titled Mapping the Kenyan Entrepreneurship Network, was conducted by Endeavor Insight in partnership with Endeavor Kenya. Drawing on more than 100 founder interviews and data from over 730 companies, the study examines what is enabling, and what is holding back, Kenya’s most promising firms, and what policymakers can do to help more of them scale.
One of the study’s central arguments is that treating high-growth companies the same as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is actively limiting Kenya’s economic potential. The two categories, the researchers argue, have fundamentally different needs and deliver fundamentally different outcomes.
“It’s time we push the narrative beyond startup success to include scale-up success by doubling down on high-growth firms,” said Maryanne Ochola, Managing Director of Endeavor Kenya. “I look forward to having this data inform targeted policies for this category of Kenya’s entrepreneurs.”
The study also highlights the international reach of scaled companies, with nearly 82% of high-growth founders reporting sales to customers outside Kenya, compared to just 50% of founders leading smaller firms – underscoring their role in driving foreign exchange earnings and expanding Kenya’s global economic footprint.
Another key finding points to the power of founder-to-founder support. Founders of scaled companies are 1.5 times more likely than those of smaller firms to have received mentorship or angel investment from a fellow founder, and are in turn more likely to give back in the same way. This creates what the study describes as a virtuous cycle of ecosystem development.
However, the research flags significant gaps in how support systems are structured. While networking opportunities are widely available, access to qualified talent, one of the most pressing challenges cited by high-growth founders alongside access to capital, remains severely underserved in existing programmes.
The study also takes aim at proposed Startup Bill amendments that would define startups as companies in existence for no more than ten years. Given that the average Kenyan company takes roughly a decade to scale, the researchers warn that such a definition would effectively exclude high-growth firms from critical policy support at precisely the stage when they need it most.
On a broader note, the findings paint an encouraging picture of Kenya’s entrepreneurial landscape. The number of tech companies in the country has nearly tripled between 2014 and 2024. More than a third of Kenyan companies are co-founded by at least one woman, well above the African average of 17.3%. And over 80% of founders surveyed expressed optimism about the future of the entrepreneurial community.
With more than two-thirds of interviewed founders open to engaging policymakers on how to better support entrepreneurs, the study’s authors say the moment is ripe for decisive action. Their recommendation: direct resources toward the specific needs of high-growth founders, and create incentives for them to mentor and invest in the next generation of scaling companies.
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