Gathered beneath a cluster of tents in the Talek region of the Maasai Mara, 20 young entrepreneurs prepared to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges. Some are pacing, others seated calmly while mentally rehearsing their lines or chatting nervously with their counterparts.
This is the first edition of the Predator’s Den, an initiative by regional lender I&M Bank and the Maa Trust that seeks to nurture and invest in local entrepreneurs looking to scale their ventures.
The entrepreneurs present had been shortlisted from a list of 115 after undergoing training in business planning and financial literacy. They later got the opportunity to defend their business proposals in front of a team of judges who interrogated their ideas before whittling the list down to three winners who would secure funding.
Martin Kyok is one of the winners whose business idea helped him secure a spot in the top three and went home with a sizable boost for his endeavour.
“I won Sh650,000 and I am excited about it and motivated by the opportunity to expand the skills that I had,” he said.
“I am going to use the money to get more skills, extend my knowledge and I am grateful that the Predator’s Den initiative came to town.”
According to I&M Bank, the Predators Den is a rolling initiative to identify and provide business support to entrepreneurs so they can better position themselves to earn a decent income from resources within their communities such as the Maasai Mara National Reserve.
Recent statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, KNBS indicates that the number of visitors to the Masai Mara went up from 119,500 in 2021 to 343,100 in 2024. At the same time enrollment at the recently chartered Masai Mara University has risen from 10,729 in 2022 to 14,012 last year.
Despite this growing community and the bustling economic potential of the game reserve which generates millions in tourism revenue each year, communities nearby have largely been left outside this boom.
Naomi Cheres, programme officer at the I&M Foundation says the initiative was birthed out of the need to bridge this gap.
“The pitching competition is meant to support startups, particularly those run by young people and women as well as businesses that have grown past the start up phase,” she explains.
“With the partnership of other entities such as GIZ and the Maa Trust we provide them with training and seed capital to grow their businesses. This is the first project we are implementing in the Mara together with our partners and the second phase will see us scale up the initiative,” she explains.
For many entrepreneurs, the gap between the potential of their business ideas and going to market is an insurmountable challenge.
According to data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), small and medium enterprises (SMEs) constitute the vast majority of all businesses in the country, contributing to about 24 per cent of GDP and accounting for approximately 14 million jobs, nearly 30 per cent of total employment.
However, other industry data paint a bleak picture of the sector, with hundreds of thousands of SMEs failing before their second birthday, and nearly half of established enterprises closing down within a year of founding.
Lack of funding remains a major bottleneck for many would-be entrepreneurs, particularly those operating in marginalised communities that are already burdened by limited opportunity.
Research by Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya reveals that 11 per cent of SMEs are entirely unable to obtain credit with a further 20 per cent partially constrained. The situation is worse for micro-enterprises and those headed by youth, women and persons with disability.
“At our organisation, we have four thematic areas: Environmental conservation, economic empowerment, education and skills development,” explains Cheres.
“This project is supported under economic empowerment and cumulatively we have supported 115 entrepreneurs with business skills and financial literacy so that even those that did not secure funding here today have gone home with the knowledge to help them approach potential funders.”
The strategic initiative culminated in a live pitching event where nine entrepreneurs received a total of Sh1.92 million in seed funding, scholarships and comprehensive business support.
Jackson Loseiya, a trustee with the Maa Trust and one of the judges of the inaugural edition of the pitching competition, explained that corporate and community partnerships such as the Predator’s Den are a solid boost to improving the economic fortunes of marginalised communities.
“This has been very instrumental in educating people and helping the youth to tap their talent,” he explains.
“The impact of this programme will go beyond the pitching exercises and as judges, the fortitude we witnessed from entrepreneurs with various innovative ideas ready to be turned into viable businesses was very encouraging.”
According to a study by the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA), eight in 10 Kenyan entrepreneurs rely on personal savings or family funds to start their businesses.
Commercial lenders on the other hand have traditionally been cagey about lending to SMEs and MSMEs who are considered high risk. The result is a persistent funding gap that keeps viable businesses trapped at subsistence level, unable to invest in equipment, staff, or market expansion.
I&M Bank expects that the Predators Den, which will be scaled up and rolled to other communities, will serve as part of the solution that bridges this gap.
