12 Kenyan startups to observe in 2026

Kenya’s tech ecosystem enters 2026 in a really totally different emotional local weather than the overheated funding cycles of 2020–2022, and even the reset years that adopted.

In 2025, the ecosystem was constructed on self-discipline. Layoffs slowed, valuations stabilised, and corporations that prioritised fundamentals started to face out. Founders raised capital, not in wild surges, however for sustainable enterprise fashions. {Hardware}-plus-fintech fashions, equivalent to M-KOPA, Watu, and Pesapal, have matured, whereas electrical mobility, like BasiGo, has moved from pilot to scale. In the meantime, deeptech improvements constructed on scientific breakthroughs, like Octavia Carbon—as soon as seen as distant—have discovered footholds within the Rift Valley.

In opposition to that backdrop, a few of these firms, together with many different smaller gamers, seem poised to form 2026. Some are already business leaders in their very own proper, whereas others are within the early levels, working to show the effectiveness of their fashions. However all are shaping the way forward for the nation’s tech in ways in which really feel sturdy reasonably than speculative.

Listed below are 12 Kenyan startups to observe in 2026.

Turaco

Turaco walks into 2026 trying much less like an “insurtech guess” and extra like a continental insurance coverage infrastructure firm. The corporate says its embedded microinsurance mannequin—bundled into on a regular basis funds, equivalent to loans and cellular cash—has now lined over 5 million individuals, with management signalling a reputable pathway to insuring 10 million individuals by 2026 throughout Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria.

Turaco stands out in Kenya’s funding setting. It broke even in Kenya round 2023 and later in Uganda and Ghana, which means a part of its growth is funded with its revenues. The corporate has complemented partnerships with firms like M-KOPA and Airtel by a pan-African rollout of its providers with ASA Worldwide, a non-deposit-taking microfinance establishment.

Turaco’s claims quicker turnaround—usually same-day through WhatsApp or cellular cash—is a stark distinction to legacy insurance coverage processes that take weeks. With a probable Sequence B in 2026, Turaco is more and more trying like the corporate which may lastly crack the mass-market African insurance coverage market.

Workpay

If African firms have gotten extra pan-African, Workpay is among the firms making that administratively doable.

Workpay claims it serves over 1,000 companies throughout greater than 20 international locations, with a roadmap to cowl 35 African markets. What began as a payroll device has advanced into an HR, compliance, and Employer of File (EOR) platform, serving to firms rent expertise wherever on the continent with out establishing native entities.

The corporate is integrating monetary providers — from insurance coverage to earned-wage entry — straight into payroll, whereas utilising AI to reinforce efficiency analytics and workforce insights. With $5 million in Sequence A funding in 2024, backed by Visa, YC, and Norrsken22, Workpay is well-capitalised. However extra importantly, it’s fixing an issue that a whole bunch of 1000’s of African SMEs nonetheless deal with manually on Excel sheets.

As hiring turns into extra distant and cross-border, count on Workpay to take a seat more and more on the centre of Africa’s labour rails.

Apollo Agriculture

In a 12 months the place unpredictable climate patterns are prone to have an effect on livelihoods throughout East Africa, Apollo Agriculture’s mannequin—bundling AI-powered agronomy with inputs, credit score, and insurance coverage—feels well-suited for the occasions.

Apollo already helps over 350,000 farmers, with ambitions to achieve 2.3 million by the top of 2026. Its know-how utilises satellite tv for pc imagery and machine studying to tailor recommendation and underwriting, enabling smallholder farmers to double and even triple their yields, with manufacturing reportedly 2.6 occasions the Kenyan common.

The corporate is increasing past maize into livestock and higher-value crops, whereas geographic growth from Kenya into Zambia is barely the start. With over $78 million raised to this point, together with SoftBank-backed Sequence B funding and new European funding in 2025, Apollo is changing into certainly one of Africa’s most necessary agriculture platforms.

In a continent the place meals safety stays a national-level precedence, Apollo’s execution in 2026 will matter.

BasiGo

Few Kenyan startups possess the industrial-level execution that BasiGo does. The corporate began with a handful of electrical buses in Nairobi and has now advanced right into a regional producer of EVs. By late 2025, BasiGo had expanded Kenya’s first high-volume electrical bus meeting line at Kenya Car Producer (KVM) in Thika, an industrial city 50km north of Nairobi.

The startup has deployed over 70 buses throughout Kenya, secured reservations from public transport operators and constructed charging networks throughout Kenya’s capital.

Its “Pay-As-You-Drive” mannequin, the place operators pay per kilometre reasonably than absorbing upfront EV prices, is anticipated to take away probably the most important adoption barrier. With over $60 million raised and powerful coverage alignment, together with VAT exemptions for electrical buses, BasiGo expects to assemble 20 buses per thirty days in 2026 and targets 1,000 buses on the highway by 2027.

Leta

Logistics stays certainly one of Africa’s greatest challenges, and Leta is addressing it with AI-driven route and cargo optimisation on a big scale.

As 2026 begins, Leta operates in seven markets, together with Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mauritius and has powered over 4.5 million deliveries. It manages greater than 7,400 autos and has helped companions minimize prices, equivalent to decreasing Twiga Meals’ truck utilization by 25% at one depot.

Past SaaS logistics optimisation, Leta can be increasing into embedded finance, introducing gas playing cards, fleet asset financing, and automatic funds. This might place Leta as a logistics intelligence layer and a fintech infrastructure supplier.

With over $8 million raised, together with backing from Google’s Africa Funding Fund and Speedinvest, Leta seems to be an operational associate for main manufacturers equivalent to KFC, EABL, Wells Fargo Courier, and Simbisa.

Solar King

Solar King enters 2026 not solely as a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) photo voltaic firm, but in addition as a vertically built-in vitality and client electronics participant.

In 2025, Solar King opened a producing facility in Nairobi able to assembling over 700,000 models of solar-powered gadgets yearly, with plans for the same hub in Nigeria. The native manufacturing cuts publicity to international provide chain disruptions whereas leveraging Africa’s industrial capabilities.

The corporate additionally closed a KES 20 billion ($156 million) securitisation deal, backed by industrial banks led by CitiGroup, to finance one other 1.4 million photo voltaic gadgets. Solar King claims it now serves one in 5 Kenyan households and holds 38% of the worldwide PAYG photo voltaic market.

It plans to achieve 200 million individuals with renewable energy by 2030, whereas 2026 will see a push into productive-use home equipment equivalent to chilly storage, followers, and clean-cooking tech.

M-KOPA

After greater than a decade of aggressive growth, M-KOPA lastly reported its first revenue in 2025, swinging from a $20 million loss to a $9.2 million acquire.

M-KOPA operates one of many continent’s largest smartphone meeting amenities in Nairobi, having produced over 2 million gadgets. Over 4.5 million Kenyan smartphone customers anchor its rising fintech ecosystem, which incorporates digital loans, insurance coverage (with companions like Turaco), financial savings, and invoice funds.

The corporate can be a major pressure in electrical mobility financing, having funded over 5,000 electrical motorbikes for boda boda riders, with plans for growth past main Kenyan cities.

2026 seems to mark the start of M-KOPA’s mature part: worthwhile, industrial, and more and more pan-African.

Watu Credit score

From boda-boda financing to a multi-asset, multi-country fintech big, Watu now sits among the many most influential lenders to Africa’s casual economic system.

In 2026, Watu is focusing on $340 million in income, pushed more and more by smartphone lending through Watu Simu, which may quickly make up 75% of its portfolio. On the similar time, it stays a key backer of electrical mobility, to finance 500,000 electrical motorbikes by 2030.

Watu has additionally accomplished what few Kenyan startups have: expanded past Africa to Latin America, coming into Mexico and Brazil to serve hundreds of thousands of financially excluded customers.

With over 2 million loans disbursed and eight million customers reached, Watu’s affect now extends nicely past transportation into credit score inclusion on a world scale.

Kotani Pay

Whereas a lot of crypto’s hype has pale, Kotani Pay is among the few African startups constructing infrastructure round digital currencies.

The corporate connects blockchain wallets to native cellular cash programs through USSD, enabling customers to entry their accounts with no smartphone or web entry. This permits cheaper remittances, humanitarian money transfers, and gig employees’ pay, all inside native rules.

An funding from Tether in late 2025 provides Kotani each liquidity and validation. The corporate now operates in over 11 African international locations, whereas partnerships equivalent to FinFan are opening Asia–Africa fee rails.

Kotani stands out as one of many few licensed Crypto Asset Service Suppliers (CASPs) in Kenya, positioning it as a reputable bridge between Web3 and on a regular basis African finance.

Octavia Carbon

Kenya is now house to one of many world’s most bold Direct Air Seize (DAC) firms, and Octavia Carbon is proving that deeptech will not be the unique area of the International North.

Its Venture Hummingbird within the Rift Valley is scaling towards 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ removing yearly by late 2026, utilizing 100 modular air-capture models powered by waste geothermal warmth, reducing prices to $100–$200 per tonne, in comparison with international averages of $600–$1,000.

Captured CO₂ is completely saved underground in basalt rock through mineralisation, in partnership with Cella, making Kenya solely the second nation on the planet, after Iceland, to deploy this type of carbon storage at scale.

With over $3 million in carbon credit score contracts already secured and international company patrons pre-paying for removals, Octavia is remodeling Kenya’s Rift Valley right into a climate-tech frontier.

SunCulture

SunCulture has pioneered Africa’s first carbon-credit ecosystem for photo voltaic irrigation, permitting it to subsidise photo voltaic pump costs by 25–40%, making them cheaper than diesel alternate options for 1000’s of smallholder farmers.

Backed by a $27.5 million Sequence B and $5 million from WaterEquity, SunCulture is increasing past irrigation. Its new ClimateSmart Battery 2 permits farmers to energy each irrigation and family wants from a single system, successfully changing into a rural vitality utility in a field.

With the launch of SunCulture Shield, a parametric insurance coverage product that routinely pays out throughout excessive climate, the corporate is integrating local weather threat administration straight into on a regular basis farming instruments.

And plenty of extra

Quantity 12 will not be a single firm, however the many Kenyan startups constructing options in agriculture, local weather, tourism, e-mobility, AI, fintech, and manufacturing.

It’s price noting that scaling will convey pressure as a result of regulation continues to be transferring, from digital credit score and payroll compliance to crypto and carbon markets. Equally, expertise will probably be tougher to maintain as international companies recruit regionally in {dollars}. Competitors is rising too, with multinational fintechs, agribusiness teams, and EV makers pushing into East Africa.

That mentioned, 2025 proved that capital exists, but it surely calls for execution, not pleasure, as was the case a decade in the past. 2026 will reward founders who construct regionally related options, pair know-how with distribution, display monetary self-discipline, and scale solely the place the unit economics are viable.