Cardplanet’s Founder Rodgers Mhandi. Photo courtesy of the Nailab
Kenyan startup CardPlanet has been accepted into the 500 Startups 4 month accelerator program. 500 Startups is a Silicon Valley venture capital seed fund & startup accelerator. The startup and its founders, Rodgers Mhandi and Sam Masinde, have made history as it is the first Kenyan startup to take part in the 500 Startups accelerator program.
CardPlanet was founded in 2011 and according to their website, CardPlanet develops and markets proprietary personal information solutions around health, identity, payments and loyalty.
CardPlanet was among the first businesses to be incubated at startup incubator Nailab.
On leaving Nailab, this is what Rodgers had to say:
“When we joined Nailab late last year,Card Planet was just an idea with no tangible thing to show.Our stay at the Nailab especially from the beginning of this year has a great impact from transforming us from where we were to where we are now.”
Nailab CEO had this to say about CardPlanet being accepted into 500 Startups:
“Our aim has been to build startups that compete on a global scale, from this its obvious that the entire ecosystem is maturing, startups can kick off at Nailab, attract investment from funds like Savannah and join prestigious accelerator with bigger investments in the Silicon Valley like 500 or YC, After that the Sky is the limit.
While its possible but very difficult to raise say $100K – $250K locally, the challenge is not in raising the money as much as in being in the right networks that can help your startup scale globally and then raise the $1M Plus, Silicon Valley is that mature ecosystem.”
CardPlanet was later taken up by seed capital firm, the Savannah Fund, which was started by among others Mbwana Alliy and Erik Hersman.