Kenyan Startup Cofounder Allegedly Kicked Out by Foreign Investors

A Kenyan geospatial engineer has disclosed how foreigners kicked him out of a startup they started together three years ago.

Kennedy Ng’ang’a launched Safi Analytics, a smart metering start-up for the agro sector, alongside two foreign nationals, among them Ms. Lauren Dunford. During the first year, Ms. Dunford returned to Stanford University in the United States to complete her MBA while Ng’ang’a worked on developing the prototype. 

The following year, the startup raised KSh200 million in capital and Ng’ang’a says this was the beginning of his trouble with his partner, Ms.  Dunford, who tried to push him out of the company.

Speaking to Sema Ukweli, a platform that was launched by activist Boniface Mwangi in 2019 for Kenyans in search of justice, Ng’ang’a said Ms. Dunford and other partners began sidelining him from the company. Ng’ang’a said the plans was to grow the company and broader adoption of its technology in factories using the money at their disposal.

But he says Ms. Dunford continuously persuaded him to resign and give up his shares for a separation offer. When he refused, Ms. Dunford reportedly trumped-up charges against him, and he was eventually fired.

He adds that the offer given to him was not a reflection of the work he had done for the company and that is why he turned it down. Ng’ang’a insists that the dismissal was illegal.

“These guys are you know, eating the fruits of my labor of the work I had done while they were in school. And I am out here struggling to make ends meet, while other people are enjoying the fruits of my innovation,” says Kennedy.

At the time Sema Ukweli was pursuing the story, Ms. Dunford declined to respond but later issued an official statement stating her stand over Ng’ang’a’s allegations.

In the statement, Dunford, who serves as Safi Analytics CEO, says the report by Sema Ukweli is false. She noted that the company was registered by Lauren and Jason Dunford in the US in March 2017 and employed Ng’ang’a in September 2017.

Dunford calls Ng’ang’a a mere employee but states that he was named a co-founder because of his ‘passion for data analytics’, and not that he created the idea of Safi. The title, she says, was to ‘appreciate’ him. The matter is in the courts.

Video; https://twitter.com/bonifacemwangi/status/1219200624291729408