Tesh Mbaabu: Meet Kenyan Entrepreneur Who Made His First Million At 19

• Tesh Mbaabu was listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2023 solidifying his reputation as a trailblazer in the entrepreneurial landscape
• Mbaabu is the co-founder and chief executive officer of MarketForce, a B2B commerce company in Nairobi with branches across East Africa
• He started his business ventures while still at the university, leveraging his programming and coding skills

Tesh Mbaabu is a Kenyan entrepreneur who achieved the remarkable feat of making his first million at the age of 19.

Mbaabu is the co-founder and chief executive officer of MarketForce, a B2B commerce company in Nairobi.

The businessman was listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2023 solidifying his reputation as a trailblazer in the entrepreneurial landscape.

"Being on the list of Forbes 30 under 30 means a lot to me. I think when I was young and starting my entrepreneurship journey, I had a Forbes poster on my vision board.

I fell in love with technology and ended up studying computer science then I went into the software world and built a couple of software businesses. I am building MarketForce which is a B2B e-commerce company that connects small neighbourhood stores all across the continent with top consumer brands so that products and essential financial services are able to reach lots of consumers," he explained.

How Tesh Mbaabu made his first million

During his student years, Mbaabu leveraged his programming and coding skills to his advantage, actively seeking well-paying gigs.

His initial earnings ranged between KSh 8,000 and KSh 30,000, gradually increasing to the point where he contemplated dropping out of university due to the growing success of his ventures.

According to Who Owns Kenya, one company paid him KSh 200,000 and this nearly turned his world upside down. His father encouraged him to complete his studies.

He teamed up with his university friend Mesongo Sibuti and co-founded MarketForce in 2018. Together, the duo initiated a consulting business that commenced with the development of websites and evolved into constructing software applications.

They received KSh 18 million when they were fresh from the university, they got KSh 10 million from a microfinance company, KSh 6 million from a government agency and KSh 2 million from an NGO.

How MarketForce works

Thousands of informal merchants rely on MarketForce for their B2B commerce needs, utilising the fintech marketplace, RejaReja.

Through interactive mobile channels, they source, order, and make payments for inventory at any time.

The ordered goods are then promptly delivered to their stores by the nearest distributor.

Besides Kenya, the company operates in the US, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Nigeria.

The company makes transactions valued at $1 trillion (KSh 157 trillion) annually and boasts over 1.3 billion consumers and 100 micro, small and medium enterprises.

What did Mbaabu and Sibuti raise?

MarketForce raised KSh 4.5 billion in funding to scale its merchant inventory financing and grow deeper in its existing markets, including Kenya and Nigeria.

The Series A round, which comprised equity and debt and was the largest of its kind in the East and Central African region, was led by V8 Capital Partners.

"We are targeting to serve over 1 million active merchants on our platform in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2025," Mbaabu said.

Who founded Suss Digital Africa?

In related news, Dennis Maina told TUKO.co.ke in an exclusive interview that his marketing firm, Suss Digital Africa, started as a simple hobby which evolved into a thriving business.

The digital entrepreneur established the company in 2021 amidst the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was recently named among the top 25 men in digital during the SOMA awards, while SUSS Digital Africa scooped five awards, including agency of the year.