Hellooo.... We’re excited to announce the partnership between SpaceYaTech and build54 for an electrifying hackathon experience 🤩😍 . . Get ready to build, collaborate, and push ideas beyond limits. #Hackathon #build54 #SpaceYaTech

The TL is awash with "expert" opinions on why these four startups; @TwigaFoods , @MarketForceHQ , @CopiaGlobal and @kyosk failed in Kenya. Most people are of the opinion that these businesses were solving for a problem that did not exist in the first place. For @TwigaFoods , some have cited the greed of management and/or theft by employees. Valid points still. I think there are several things we are missing and @NdemoKelvin has pointed out some, as someone with first-hand information. Let's dissect and try to play devil's advocate a bit. 1. It is not true that the problem these startups were trying to solve did not exist. If you have ever built a startup and raised funds for it, you'd know the due diligence investors perform before they entrust even a shilling to you. No VC just pours over $135 million in a startup solving for a problem that does not exist. The business problem was clear. The supply chain logistics in Africa is very inefficient, riddled with middlemen making it opaque and costly to small retailers. The fact that it works and you somehow end up with sugar, milk and bread on your breakfast table does not mean it is optimal. Interview shopkeepers, smallholder farmers and you will discover that we have a problem. 2. There is a glaring failure of government and public infrastructure to supporting the supply chain in Africa. From poor roads, to non-existent support for farmers, to lack of cold storage and markets; it is super expensive and capital intensive for businesses like @TwigaFoods to set up these systems from scratch and that is why they had to raise those astronomical amounts of capital. For a business like Twiga that started with farm produce distribution, you have to understand that the first problem they had to deal with was efficiently handling perishables. Moving waru, tomatoes and bananas from Murang'a to Nairobi is not an easy business. 3. The VC "funding winter" 2019-2021 was a period of great abundance of VC funding, and most of the funding was pegged on growth metrics, not necessarily profitability. When interest rates rose in the West, Africa was hit hard with a funding drought. Remember, these business models require heavy funding for a considerable length of time before they can grow roots. @TwigaFoods and @CopiaGlobal had to cut their workforce considerably and reorganize their business models to stretch the runway, and even that did not suffice. 4. Hyper-price elasticy and the loyalty "fallacy" If you have ever operated a small business, you know that you are basically competing on price. Consumers, especially of foods and FMCGs, are highly price sensitive and this means informal retailers (dukas), are loyal only to the wholesaler who offers the lowest buying prices, not the Twiga or RejaReja app. It is hard to win against those wholesale dukas when they sell a 20L jerrican of cooking oil at Ksh. 100 less and you can't figure out how. 5. The nightmare that is B2B credit. For startups like Kyosk, Marketforce and Twiga, that offered small shops credit to boost ordering volumes, default on those loans hit hard. And this is not the startups problem or lack of foresight. So many macroeconomic factors come into play when you enter the business of lending. When inflation hits and currency depreciates, like the shilling did against the dollar two years ago, shit hits the fan very fast. Once consumer purchasing power is hit, your business model is toast. Just so you don't forget, @Jumia_Group, despite being listed on the NYSE, is still loss making and has never made a single dollar of profit since founding in 2012. @amazon made it's first full year profit of $35 million in 2003, after almost a decade in business. The giant that is today, is mainly driven by @awscloud, not the retail business. So, @TwigaFoods and co might have gone under due to many factors at play, but business model is not one of them. Disrupting the African supply chain is possible, but a lot still needs to be done and you can't succeed here at a large scale unless you have piles of tax free and interest money in sacks like our politicians.

🇰🇪Kenya: $7500

Kenya is set to roll out the first phase of the Ksh. 45 billion Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITS). President Ruto firs spoke about this ITS during the commisioning of the Ngong-Naivasha Road Flyover on June 29, 2026. The ITS will be implemented in three phases: Phase 1: Costing Ksh 7.9 billion, covering 25 junctions and a centralized control center. Phase 2: Costing Ksh 13 billion and covering an additional 60 spots and junctions. Phase 3: Covering Ksh 24 billion, adding an additional 120 spots. Okay guys, everyone knows that there are two key problems with traffic management in Nairobi: 1. @NPSOfficial_KE Traffic police and the Nairobi County traffic marshals 2. Poor driving habits of Kenyans, and notoriously, the PSVs with the enablement of the traffic police. The danger is spending Ksh 45 Billion of taxpayers money, and leaving the culture that is currently enabling the traffic mess intact, along with the traffic police at every round about to continue collecting bribes for the bosses. Really, if you sit down and think: is traffic in Nairobi such an insurmountable problem that we need to spend Ksh 45 billion for a solution? For a country with a poverty rate of almost 40%, the scale of what Ksh 1 billion can do is simply something that is out of the imagination of many. Maybe it's only us here at @Spaceyatech who think that what the city needs are traffic lights that work, and strict enforcement of traffic laws including punishment for offences. Well, let's wait and see. Maybe there's something we are missing.

The Motorists Association of Kenya (MAK) has rejected the proposed 30-year toll on the Rironi- Mau Summit road and instead proposed a fuel levy hike of between Ksh 5 and Ksh 10, collected over 20 years and ringfenced to fund the particular investment. They have argued that the old road was built on public land and is a major transportation trunk, and it does not make commercial and legal sense to hand over a public property into private hands simply because of an upgrade. The association has also questioned why the road could not have been dualed years ago given the speed at which the Rironi-Naivasha section has been constructed, with a completion projection of October 30. They have reasoned that it would have been possible to dual the Mombasa-Nairobi-Kisumu-Malaba trunk road piecemeal at a pace that the Kenyan taxpayers can stomach, making PPP unnecessary and subsequently zero need for toll roads.

The new Bumala market. This is the result when you apply Human-Centered Design to build public infrastructure. 1. Empathize - Talk to the sellers and buyers and other stakeholders and understand their pain points. From their perspective. 2. Define - Clearly define the problems buyers and sellers are dealing with on a daily basis: weather elements, inadequate sanitation, proper lighting, security etc... 3. Ideate -Come up with solutions that answer your "How might we?" questions. You are looking for insights. 4. Prototype - Draw architectural plans and discuss them with your stakeholders. Take their feedback and iterate. Then go ahead and build. 5. Test - Test and see where bottlenecks still exist before launch. In Kenya, public participation/user research is either done shoddily or not done at all and that's how you end up with markets that look like apartments.

Apple: "Our iPhone Duo has this cool animation that is industry first." Devs: "Hold my beer bro."

Apple released the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max on 9/9/2026 Apple basically spent a couple of years watching Samsung and Google's foldable devices, studied the user feedback and got down to work on their version. Only better. The iPhone Duo is a good example of Human-Centered Design (HCD) in action. Showing that design is not only about the technology or the way a device looks, but how it meets the needs of users and fit within the lifestyle of those users. We're moving away from the era of users adapting to tech and instead,techa adapting to user behavior and reimagining those habits to make the experience delightful. Using the iPhone Duo as a bedside alarm clock is such a simple concept but one that is sure to tug at the heartstrings of users. Granted, nobody buys a $2000 device to use it as a bedside alarm. The problem with Samsung's Galaxy Z fold is its obsession with losing weight at the expense of utility. Compared to the Duo, the Z fold now looks like two normal phones glued together. And users must now wonder why the Fold could not support the S Pen. Why? Apple saw an opportunity and instead of copying the Z fold, went a step further and gave users the ability to use the Apple Pencil, which is honestly a masterstroke. It now gives users who have never seen the value proposition of an iPad, to have an iPad and an iPhone in one. Google Pixel's Fold will now fall to a distant third in the minds of buyers because Google is obsessed with AI bloatware that nobody asked for instead of making quality hardware comparable to competition. Their Folds have failed the JerryRigEverything teardowns for two years in a row, and Google seems unwilling to make hardware upgrades. Similarly, Pixels are still struggling with processor power compared to peers. So doleful. Apple Duo is now only $100 more than the Z Fold and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold and no one will touch Android foldables when the iPhone version is almost the same price. Checkmate!

Heyy, majushaa. Today we get back to the conversation that we missed last week. We're moving temporarily to Meet. VibeCoding : W or L? Thursday, June 25 · 9:00 – 10:00pm Time zone: Africa/Nairobi Google Meet joining info Video call link: meet.google.com/iws-cote-xsn

Hey, change of plans. Elon can't stop the conversation. Let's congregate on Meet. Joining link: meet.google.com/hhd-mrfk-qio

Let's meet at the arena. From 9:00PM. Don't miss.

Join us tomorrow from 9:00PM as we have a conversation with the @blackie_360 on integrating AI into your workflows to 10x your productivity. - How to. - Tools to use - Deploying your vibe coded project to production - e.t.c xitter.cf/i/spaces/1mxPaaPBbvgKN

Short & Engaging Starting in tech? This Space is for you. Join Solomon Kaniaru as he shares the wins, challenges, and lessons from his journey in the industry. 🚀 🕘 9 PM EAT xitter.cf/i/spaces/1kKzDDpkyXrJv