After weeks of back-and-forth, I lastly pinned down a gathering with Nimrod Kibua at CcHub’s iHub, now housed within the Jahazi constructing in Nairobi’s Lavington space, a leafy suburb that’s quietly turn out to be a hive for tech meetups and low-key founder classes.
We caught up over mild banter. Kibua, who was among the many early crop of founders incubated at iHub within the 2010s, recalled the power again then. Nairobi’s tech scene was nonetheless uncooked, crowded with builders chasing product-market match and absorbing mentorship from the town’s few however energetic incubation hubs. iHub was one of many important ones.
A decade on, and after biking by way of a number of concepts, Kibua, a educated software program options developer, landed on Asta Market, a business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce platform. It launched in 2019, went quiet in 2020 throughout the pandemic, then resurfaced in 2022, itemizing at the very least 3,000 distributors.
Why carry again an e-commerce platform in a market already saturated with them?
Platform uniqueness
“Most of our distributors are already operating their very own ecommerce platforms,” he advised me. It is sensible. In Kenya, it’s widespread for companies to juggle a number of on-line storefronts—Instagram, Fb, X, generally even a primary web site. “So we wished to see how we might assist these distributors scale what they have already got,” he mentioned.
Moderately than changing current storefronts, Asta needs to plug into what’s already working and assist sellers attain extra prospects. It’s a refined however crucial distinction.
However Asta isn’t simply B2B. It has a B2C layer as properly, the place prospects can store like on every other platform, but in addition, crucially, turn out to be distributors themselves.
To try this, they need to lease a digital shelf and undergo a verification course of earlier than they’re allowed to resell. It’s not an open floodgate, however extra curated. That mannequin feels near what Alibaba does with its verified sellers on Alibaba.com, the place companies should undergo checks and sometimes pay a subscription to record as “gold suppliers.” The twist right here is that Asta Market lowers the barrier by focusing on on a regular basis customers who may not personal a enterprise however need to take part in on-line retail. It’s a layered method to e-commerce, one which blends formality with casual hustle, one thing that mirrors how commerce truly works in Kenya.
It doesn’t cease at e-commerce. In 2022, Asta Market launched the Asta Funding Hub, a service designed to assist distributors entry funding from angel traders, enterprise capital corporations, and different sources. The Hub was co-founded with Dennis Guantai, a former monetary analyst at Wasoko, the Kenyan B2B platform that later merged with Egypt’s MaxAB.
This Hub is considered one of Asta’s core income streams.
How it works
People all for elevating capital join on-line coaching that covers the fundamentals: methods to develop a time period sheet, create a pitch deck, and current to potential traders. The classes are delivered just about. Kibua advised me that there’s a plan so as to add bodily classes sooner or later.
Pricing is tiered. People pay KES 10,000 ($80) for 3 45-minute classes. Group coaching, focused at a number of distributors from the identical firm, prices KES 5,000 ($40) per individual. It’s a construction that seems designed to encourage group participation whereas providing some price reduction.
For coaching contributors in search of extra tailor-made assist, Asta Funding Hub presents superior classes that may price as much as KES 70,000 ($538) per engagement. These are sometimes for companies that want hands-on assist with areas like creating full enterprise plans, detailed monetary modelling, or refining funding methods.
As soon as educated, contributors can use the Hub’s community to attach with funders and pitch for funding. In concept, it’s a pipeline from skill-building to fundraising. In apply, the numbers paint a extra complicated image.
Over 800 coaching attendants have accomplished the programme since 2022. Nonetheless, simply 23 have efficiently raised funding, which is lower than 3%.
Kibua doesn’t shrink back from the challenges. “Normally, the success price may be very low on account of extra rigorous checks by potential funders. Some companies might not pose worth that an investor is in search of, so they’re principally kicked out,” he mentioned.
It’s unclear whether or not this factors to limitations within the coaching, gaps in deal-readiness, or investor urge for food. However the ambition is obvious. Asta Funding Hub educated 230 distributors within the first quarter of 2025 and is aiming to coach 2,000 extra in its subsequent cohort, set for June.
If a funding companion working with Asta Funding Hub helps a vendor increase capital after finishing Asta’s coaching, the companion takes a ten% success payment from the funds raised. Asta Funding Hub then earns 10% of that payment, basically a fee on a fee.
This mannequin, nevertheless, isn’t replicated throughout Asta Funding Hub’s different investor partnerships.
Normally, as soon as distributors full coaching, Asta steps again. The belief is that the seller now has sufficient information to navigate funding processes independently. In the event that they do go on to lift capital, by way of private networks, different platforms, or direct investor relationships, Asta Funding Hub doesn’t take a reduce.
Whether or not this alerts a hands-off method or displays a perception in vendor autonomy is unclear. Kibua insists the distributors stay inside Asta’s assist ecosystem and may attain out for assist when wanted. However the construction suggests a light-touch mannequin that gives coaching, creates connections, after which lets distributors check the waters on their very own. It’s a guess that information and publicity are sufficient, at the very least normally.
Asta’s layered mannequin—half market, half funding assist, half capability builder—makes an attempt to reflect the messiness of how commerce truly works in Kenya. It doesn’t promise scale from day one or assure investor cheques. But it surely does make room for distributors who are sometimes in between, half-formal, half-hustle, and largely ignored by bigger platforms.
Whether or not that mannequin is sustainable or scalable remains to be unclear. What’s clear is that Asta isn’t making an attempt to interchange how issues work, however to quietly insert itself into the center of it.
