Venture building · Digital & AI · Programme delivery · Kenya and Ethiopia

Direction for founders.
Delivery for the partners
who back them.

DIRA works hands-on with founders to build and scale ventures, with the digital, automation and AI systems that save them time and money, and with development partners and companies to deliver programmes that reach women- and youth-led businesses on the ground in Kenya and Ethiopia.

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Working with
A Kenyan woman entrepreneur wearing her hair in braids
20+
Startups backed · 10 in active build
60%
Revenue growth across backed ventures
10,000+
Women- and youth-led businesses trained
3,000+
MSMEs digitised
Who we are

Dira means compass.
We add the engine.

DIRA is a venture-building and ecosystem partner working in Kenya and Ethiopia. We sit where founders, funders and markets meet, and we do the work that turns plans into businesses that grow and hire.

For founders, that means rolling up our sleeves on strategy, sales, operations and investment readiness. For development partners and companies, it means delivering programmes that actually reach women- and youth-led businesses, and reporting outcomes you can stand behind.

One team, one network, two ways in.

Read our story →
For founders

We build alongside you,
not just advise you.

DIRA works inside early- and growth-stage ventures, with a focus on women- and youth-led teams. We've backed 20+ startups so far and are building with 10 more right now. You get a hands-on team that shares the workload, plus the network to open doors in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Stage 1

Research and set up

  • Market research & data collection: real customer and competitor data, mapped with GIS, before you commit money.
  • Market entry & landscape assessment: where the gaps, risks and openings are.
  • Local partner & vendor sourcing: the right suppliers, distributors and service providers.
  • Operational set-up: registration, hiring, systems and launch of your team on the ground.
  • Networks & curated events: introductions to customers, investors and partners.
Stage 2

Execute and scale

  • Implementation roadmaps: strategy turned into owners, milestones and deadlines.
  • Sales & distribution: channels and sales models that deliver every month.
  • Pricing & incentives: prices and commission structures that drive growth.
  • KPI design & performance tracking: the few numbers that matter, tracked weekly.
  • Team capacity building: training your people to run what we build together.
  • Investment readiness: financials, data room and pitch that survive due diligence.
  • Market expansion: entering Kenya or Ethiopia with local partners already in place.
Build your venture with us

Every engagement is scoped to the venture's stage and needs.

Digital & AI

Do more with the team
you already have.

Growing businesses lose hours every week to manual work: re-typing data, chasing approvals, answering the same customer questions. We find where time and money leak, build the digital systems, automations and AI tools that fix it, and train your team to run them.

Digital transformation

Move paper, WhatsApp and spreadsheet processes onto systems built to scale.

Workflow automation

Connect your CRM, forms, payments and reporting so routine work runs itself.

AI for business

Assistants, customer support, document processing and insights, built for your market and languages.

Software & product development

Custom apps, dashboards and internal tools, from prototype to launch.

Location intelligence & GIS

Map customers, competitors and catchment areas to decide where to open, sell and expand.

How it works
01
Audit

Map where your team's time and money go, and where automation pays back fastest.

02
Build

Design and ship the fix, in weeks, not quarters.

03
Hand over

Train your team and document everything, so the system keeps running without us.

Book a digital audit

Also delivered at programme scale, helping cohorts of MSMEs adopt digital tools and AI as part of partner-funded programmes.

For development partners and companies

Your programme,
delivered on the ground.

Funding a programme for women- and youth-led businesses is the easy part. Reaching the right people, keeping them engaged and proving what changed is harder. DIRA is the local delivery partner that does that work in Kenya and Ethiopia, with the community, the trainers and the data already in place.

For development partners and foundations
  • Programme design & co-delivery: shape the curriculum and run it with you, end to end.
  • Last-mile outreach: recruit and retain women and youth in the informal economy, not just the easiest to reach.
  • Local implementation in Ethiopia: delivery that respects local data protection and employment rules from day one.
  • Impact measurement: baseline, follow-up and reporting against your results framework.
For companies
  • Supplier & distributor development: build and upskill the MSMEs in your value chain.
  • Market entry support: local partners, research and on-the-ground set-up in Kenya and Ethiopia.
  • Sponsored cohorts: fund a programme tied to your market, with reporting you can share.
Partner on a programme

Training stays free for every participant. Partners fund the programmes; entrepreneurs never pay to join.

Why it works

Commercial growth and development outcomes, in one system.

Most organisations do either programmes or ventures. We do both, and each makes the other stronger.

01

Reach

Partner-funded programmes bring thousands of women- and youth-led businesses into DIRA.

02

Build

The most promising move into venture building, with hands-on support to grow.

03

Grow

Those ventures create jobs, join supply chains and open new markets.

04

Prove

Their results feed back to partners as real outcomes, and to the next cohort as role models.

For partners, that means every programme has a pipeline beyond the certificate. For founders, it means a network that already knows the market.

For entrepreneurs

Growing a business?
Start here, free.

Programmes

Practical training in digital tools, AI, financial literacy and business management for women- and youth-led MSMEs. Free for every participant, funded by our partners.

Join a programme

DIRA Circle

An all-women Data and AI community across Kenya and Ethiopia. Learn with peers, share opportunities, grow your network.

Join DIRA Circle

Channel link coming shortly.

Where we work

Two markets,
one network.

Kenya · Our founding market, since 2023

Nairobi-based, delivering nationwide through our digital training model. Where DIRA started, and where our venture-building practice began.

Ethiopia · Our newest market, 2026

Addis Ababa. Building local partnerships, community and delivery capacity for DIRA's next phase.

Founders and partners working across both markets get one team that knows each one.

Results

What it looks like
in practice.

Venture building

GoodayOn

Challenge

Demand was real and customers came back, but growth ran through the founders. Every sale needed one of them in the room, which capped how fast the business could move and made the month hard to plan against.

What we did

We worked inside the team rather than advising from outside: mapped the customers actually worth pursuing, built a sales process someone other than a founder could run, set the pricing and incentives behind it, and put weekly tracking on the few numbers that decide the month.

Result

Selling no longer depends on the founders being in the room, and the team reviews the same numbers every week. GoodayOn is one of the ventures currently in active build with DIRA.

Partner programme

10 Academy

Challenge

Reaching women- and youth-led businesses beyond the usual networks is the hard part of any programme. The businesses who most need the training are the least likely to see the advert for it.

What we did

We co-designed the curriculum and delivered it with them, recruited through the community networks DIRA already works in rather than open sign-ups, and measured participants at baseline and again after the programme closed.

Result

The cohort reached businesses that an open call would have missed, and the follow-up data gave 10 Academy outcomes to report rather than attendance figures.

From programme to venture

Segmetrix-Research

Challenge

A capable team doing good work, facing the questions that come next: which market to commit to, what to charge, and how to make new business arrive predictably rather than by referral.

What we did

They came in through a free partner-funded programme. The work that followed was venture building: research on where the real demand sat, pricing, and the operating discipline to run against a plan rather than a pipeline of favours.

Result

The route from a free programme into hands-on venture building is the loop DIRA is built around, and Segmetrix-Research is the clearest example of it so far.

Meet the team

Operators, investors and engineers who have done the work.

Between us, we've built companies from zero, run the support programmes behind investors' portfolios, delivered for development partners on the ground, and built the software that turns data into decisions. That's the combination DIRA brings to every founder and every programme.

Daisy Nyaronge

Co-founder & Executive Director

An operator and market-systems advisor with more than ten years of building businesses across African markets. Daisy has launched and scaled operations for startups, hubs and jobtech platforms and co-founded Mint Hub, a startup hub supporting 500+ entrepreneurs. She advises founders, platforms and development partners on operating models, scale readiness and inclusive growth.

At DIRA, she pairs that operating depth with ecosystem and partner networks across Kenya and Ethiopia, so the ventures and programmes we back deliver real results on the ground.

LinkedIn →

Akinyi Wavinya

Co-founder & Venture Building Lead

A startup operator and portfolio builder who has taken ventures from idea to scale across sectors. As Head of Portfolio Success at pre-seed investor Madica, Akinyi leads the hands-on support behind its investments. As an operator, she has launched, scaled and expanded logistics, marketplace and e-commerce businesses, including one through an acquisition.

At DIRA, she brings an investor's lens and a builder's discipline to every venture we work with, along with a long commitment to dignified work for Africa's youth.

LinkedIn →

Javan Meshack

Lead Engineer, Digital & AI

A full-stack engineer who builds production systems for high-stakes decisions. At Fortifiy he builds backend APIs and the machine learning behind real-time fraud detection; before that he was a GIS developer at JapakGIS Africa. Since 2019 he has delivered 500+ projects across consulting, corporate GIS and fintech, for clients in 20+ countries.

At DIRA, he leads Digital & AI, building the automations, software and location intelligence that help ventures scale with less manual work.

LinkedIn →
Questions

The things people
ask us first.

What does DIRA do?

DIRA is a venture-building and ecosystem partner in Kenya and Ethiopia. We build and scale ventures with founders, and deliver programmes for women- and youth-led businesses with development partners and companies.

What kind of startups does DIRA work with?

Early- and growth-stage ventures, with a focus on women- and youth-led teams in Kenya and Ethiopia. We've backed 20+ startups so far across retail, agribusiness, fashion and beauty, fintech and jobtech.

How does a venture-building engagement work?

We start with a short diagnostic, agree priorities and milestones, then work alongside your team. Scope and commercial terms are agreed with each venture.

How can development partners work with DIRA?

As a delivery partner: co-designing programmes, reaching participants, running training and reporting outcomes against your results framework.

How can companies work with DIRA?

Through supplier and distributor development, market entry support in Kenya and Ethiopia, or a sponsored programme tied to your market.

Is DIRA's entrepreneurship training free?

Yes. Programme training is free for every participant, funded by our partners. Venture-building engagements are scoped separately.

Let's build
what comes next.

Whether you're growing a venture or funding the people who will, a 20-minute call is the fastest way to see if we're a fit.

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