Startup Lions is a joint social venture that builds access to education, creative digital skills and culture in marginalized communities in rural Africa since 2014. Our activities are an essential starting point and corner stone for young Kenyans to tap into the international digital cultural and creative sector to build livelihoods. We fight poverty with digital opportunity! Since our start we’ve provided such opportunities to hundreds of rural Kenyans – many of whom actually come from (semi-)nomadic families -, have won a Google social venture award and been invited to partner with German authorities (Strategische Partnerschaft Digitales Afrika, GIZ refugee education, Bayerische Staatskanzlei). Since 2020, we are the world's first organisation to be able to offer Fair Trade certified digital services around webdevelopment, graphic design and animation. For additional details see www.startuplions.org

We are a social venture that straddles the interface of culture, creativity, commerce & development. Startup Lions uses international linkages between people and institutions to deliver our pioneering concept of digital vocational training, creative skills, fair trade outsourcing and job creation that that creates global commercial links in the creative sector for rural Africa.

Our project is targeting rural (youth) unemployment with the connected problems of hopelessness, alcoholism, migratory pressures and urbanisation. In the region of our pilot project – Turkana – 97% of people live in extreme poverty, suffering from unemployment caused by poor infrastructure, limited access to markets, very few formal job opportunities. Turkana has particularly infertile soil that does not support sustainable agriculture.

We are currently in our ramp-up-phase, in which we accelerate our sales through enhanced productivity, higher value services, Fair Trade certification and extending our global partner network of IT service agencies & professionals. more