Once a practicing lawyer in London, Sheena Raikundalia’s decision to leave behind a decade-long legal career and return to Kenya marked the beginning of a transformative journey—one that would take her from entrepreneurial struggles to becoming a key player in Kenya’s burgeoning Agri-tech sector.
Sheena is no stranger to innovation, although her foray into entrepreneurship upon her return to Kenya was fraught with challenges. “Upon my return, I ventured into entrepreneurship, which ultimately didn’t succeed,” she admits, reflecting on her first business venture. Yet, rather than seeing failure as an end, Sheena embraced it as a profound learning experience. “I learned more during that phase of my life than I had in my entire career up to that point,” she recalls. It was this mindset—one of resilience and growth—that propelled her into the world of impact investing.
Merging Profit with Purpose
The move to impact investing opened Sheena’s eyes to the possibility of building businesses that are not only profitable but also purpose-driven. As Country Director for the UK-Kenya Tech Hub, she focused on strengthening Kenya’s tech ecosystem, fostering partnerships, and developing digital skills. These efforts underscored her belief that creating a thriving innovation ecosystem requires more than just funding—it demands structural changes and targeted support for startups.
Today, Sheena serves as the Chief Growth Officer at Kuza One, an Agri-tech company dedicated to digitizing the agricultural value chain and empowering agri-preneurs. For Sheena, agriculture represents both a critical challenge and a transformative opportunity for Kenya and the wider African continent.
“I strongly believe that Kenya has the potential to feed itself, contribute to global food security, and create meaningful jobs while doing so,” she says.
“You Can’t Eat Tech”: Rethinking Agricultural Innovation
“Technology is an enabler, not the end goal,” Sheena often says. Her pragmatic perspective highlights the inefficiencies that plague Africa’s agricultural sector and the immense potential for innovation. “For me, innovation in agriculture is about rethinking how we do things to address these inefficiencies and unlock the sector’s full potential,” she explains.
From marketing traditional vegetables to creating value-added products and adopting climate-smart practices, opportunities abound. At Kuza One, the focus is on training agri-preneurs to provide bundled services, including advisory, finance, and market linkages. This holistic approach ensures sustainable impact at scale while addressing systemic challenges in agriculture.
Sheena’s vision for innovation extends beyond agriculture. She advocates for policies and initiatives that foster a thriving startup ecosystem in Africa. “Kenya doesn’t necessarily need more money for startups,” she says. “We need the right environment to channel existing wealth into fostering innovation.”
One solution she champions is incentivizing angel investors through tax breaks and benefits, similar to the UK’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS). These programs have unlocked billions of pounds in private capital by reducing the financial risks of backing startups. Implementing comparable schemes in Africa could attract more venture capital and angel investments to early-stage businesses.
Equally important is addressing systemic issues in bank lending, where high capital costs stifle growth. Sheena also emphasizes the government’s role in unlocking markets for startups through policies that prioritize procurement from small businesses and ensure timely payments. This approach not only boosts cash flow but also enhances stability and scalability for emerging enterprises.
“Storytelling also plays a critical role. Investors are drawn not only to financial returns but also to the opportunity to be part of transformative journeys. Highlighting success stories of local startups that have achieved meaningful impact or significant growth can inspire confidence and create a sense of pride and ownership in supporting local innovation,” she adds.
Innovation Beyond Tech
Sheena’s advocacy for innovation includes redefining it beyond technology to encompass business model innovation. “Innovation is about solving persistent problems in creative and efficient ways,” she explains. Examples like pay-as-you-go models in renewable energy or Kuza’s bundled agricultural services demonstrate the transformative potential of non-tech solutions.
“We need to tell more success stories of non-tech innovations that drive systemic change,” Sheena urges. By broadening the narrative around innovation, Africa can celebrate its creativity and resilience while addressing pressing challenges in agriculture, healthcare, and education.
Scaling Green Growth with Equity
Africa’s abundant renewable resources offer a unique opportunity to align economic growth with environmental sustainability. Kenya, where 90% of electricity comes from renewable sources, is already a leader in this space. However, infrastructure gaps and limited investment in value-added industries hinder the continent’s potential.
Sheena calls for pro-growth green investments that prioritize industrialization and sustainability. Renewable energy can power value-added agriculture, local manufacturing, and climate-smart industries, creating jobs and driving inclusive growth. To achieve this, she urges the global north to move away from debt-driven climate financing and instead invest in equitable industry partnerships.
“The global north has a crucial role to play in supporting this transition. First, it must shift away from debt-driven climate financing. African nations cannot afford to solve a problem they did not create by taking on more debt at exorbitant interest rates, which currently stand 4–8 times higher than those in the US or Europe. Instead, the global north should incentivize industry partnerships that bring technology, expertise, and investment to Africa.”
She emphasized that Africa’s growing energy demand should not be viewed as a problem but as an opportunity to leverage clean energy for inclusive growth. She urged the global north to recognize this potential and provide support, not only through investments but also by addressing structural inequalities in international financial systems. Collaboration between Africa and the global north is a pathway to developing climate solutions that prioritize both people and the planet.
Empowering Communities Through Grassroots Networks
Modernizing agriculture, Sheena believes, requires building ecosystems that prioritize agency, dignity, and choice for grassroots communities. At Kuza, empowering rural agri-preneurs through networks has proven transformative. These networks facilitate knowledge sharing, foster trust, and ensure solutions are locally relevant and inclusive.
“True systems change comes from empowering communities to lead their own transformations,” Sheena asserts. By involving governments, markets, and local stakeholders, the interconnected systems needed for agriculture to thrive can be created.
Sheena’s entrepreneurial journey is a cornerstone of her success. “Failure became a powerful teacher, guiding me to refine my ideas and approaches,” she reflects. Her experiences underscored the importance of understanding market demand, staying connected to end-users, and embracing humility. In agriculture, where conditions vary widely, these lessons ensure the development of practical and impactful solutions.
“The journey taught me that I don’t have all the answers, and learning is a continuous process. There’s a Swahili phrase, ‘vitu kwa ground,’ which means ‘things on the ground are different.’ This encapsulates the reality that the real world often diverges from our expectations or plans. Understanding the difference between positive feedback and tangible market demand is vital,” she reflects.
Her advice to entrepreneurs is simple yet profound: “Life is long. Focus on working at your ideas steadily, take risks, and be open to failure. Celebrate your wins, learn from your losses, and remember to have fun along the way.”
Sheena Raikundalia’s journey exemplifies the transformative power of combining resilience, purpose, and innovation. Her work in agri-tech, coupled with her vision for structural changes in Africa’s startup ecosystem, offers a roadmap for addressing the continent’s most pressing challenges. As she continues to champion scalable, inclusive solutions, Sheena’s belief in Africa’s potential shines through.