Kenyan startup MESH, the country’s first online community for young entrepreneurs in the informal economy, has announced it has reached 150,000 members.
Launched in November 2021, MESH connects young entrepreneurs and small business owners to vital networks, tailored training content, and access to opportunities and services in the formal economy.
Its new growth milestone follows a one-year partnership with Mastercard Strive Community, a philanthropic programme of the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth and Caribou Digital, which provided early stage grant funding and technical support to develop and scale MESH.
With additional early-stage investment from Shujaaz and funding from TRANSFORM, MESH was founded with a mission to unlock the potential of the informal economy in Kenya.
“The early stage grant funding and support of Strive Community has been instrumental in enabling us to build, start up and scale MESH. We’re so proud that MESH is now connecting 150,000 young entrepreneurs to each other – and for the first time, to valuable gig work and training opportunities with our growing community of commercial partners. In particular, the partnership with Strive Community has been instrumental in helping us to refine, test and scale our innovative learning models that are enabling thousands of small business owners to build the real-world skills they need to thrive,” said Anuj Tanna, co-founder and CEO of MESH.
