Every great business idea deserves a great storefront. We got tired of watching brilliant Kenyan entrepreneurs lose customers and revenue to WhatsApp chaos — so we built the solution.
Why we exist
In 2023, our co-founder Brian spent a week embedded with small-business sellers in Gikomba market and Westlands malls. What he found was astonishing: sellers with genuinely excellent products, loyal customers, and fierce ambition — being held back by the tools they were forced to use.
One fashion boutique owner showed him her phone: 1,247 unread WhatsApp messages. Orders mixed with complaints, mixed with suppliers, mixed with family messages. She was spending 5 hours every night just sorting out who had ordered what. She missed orders. She over-sold products. She fought with customers who swore they'd paid when they hadn't.
The international e-commerce platforms existed, but they weren't built for Kenya. No M-Pesa. Desktop-first design on a market where 90%+ of shopping happens on mobile. Prices in USD. Customer support in English only, during US business hours. These tools assumed a Shopify customer in San Francisco, not a clothing seller in Thika.
"There is no reason a Kenyan seller should use an inferior tool just because she isn't in Silicon Valley. She deserves world-class e-commerce infrastructure — and we are going to build it."
That conversation became SokoHub. M-Pesa first by design. Mobile first by design. Built for Kenya, by Kenyans — but with global quality standards, because Kenyan businesses deserve nothing less.
What guides us
We don't port foreign products to Kenya. We build from scratch, for Kenyans — M-Pesa at the core, mobile-first design, county-by-county market knowledge.
We charge a flat fee and zero commission on purpose. When our sellers make more money, everyone wins. We will never take a percentage of your hard-earned sales.
Every feature we build gets judged by one question: "Can a first-time smartphone user figure this out in 2 minutes?" If not, we go back to the drawing board.
We're building infrastructure for decades, not a flip. SokoHub will be the backbone of Kenyan e-commerce long after current trends have come and gone.
The builders
We are a small, focused team of Kenyans who have worked in fintech, e-commerce, and small business — and we're obsessed with making SokoHub the best platform for Kenyan sellers.
Co-Founder & CEO
Former Safaricom product manager obsessed with helping Kenyan SMEs compete with global brands. Built SokoHub after watching his sister lose KES 80K in WhatsApp order chaos.
Co-Founder & CTO
Software engineer who previously built payments infrastructure at Cellulant. Obsessed with making M-Pesa integration invisible — so sellers never think about payments.
We're growing. Want to help us change how African businesses sell online?
See open roles →Our journey
SokoHub conceived after spending a week shadowing small-business sellers in Gikomba and Westlands, watching them lose sales to WhatsApp chaos.
Launched private beta to 100 sellers across Nairobi. First M-Pesa payment processed automatically at 2:17 AM on a Friday. Team celebrated.
Crossed 1,000 active stores. Expanded beyond Nairobi to Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Eldoret. Launched AI product descriptions.
Half a billion shillings processed for Kenyan sellers with zero commission taken. Launched 130 professional store templates.
Expanding to Uganda, Tanzania, and Ghana. Because African sellers everywhere deserve tools built for them.
In the press
TechCabal
"SokoHub is solving the WhatsApp commerce problem nobody else tackled"
Read article →Business Daily
"The Kenyan startup turning WhatsApp sellers into real e-commerce brands"
Read article →Disrupt Africa
"SokoHub processes KES 500M+ for Kenyan SMEs with zero commission"
Read article →Daily Nation
"Meet the platform helping Nairobi's street sellers go fully online"
Read article →Media enquiries? press@localhost
Join the team
We're a small team with outsized ambition. We work remotely across Kenya, ship fast, and care deeply about the sellers who trust us with their livelihoods. If that sounds like your kind of challenge, we'd love to talk.
Remote · Kenya
Full-timeRemote · Kenya
Full-timeNairobi · Hybrid
Full-timeFind us
Address
iHub, Ngong Road, Nairobi, Kenya
General
hello@localhost
Support
support@store.greatzern.com
Press
press@localhost
Phone
+254700000000
Nairobi, Kenya 🇰🇪
iHub · Ngong Road
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