The Rise And Rise Of Juliana Rotich

When I ask Juliana Rotich, Head of Department - FinTech Solutions at Safaricom PLC if she considers herself as either gifted or genius based on her contributions to tech, she baulks. She doesn’t think she is. “I’d have to leave that to journalists, and third parties who can make the assessment. I am grateful to have had the opportunities I have had to be able to impact Kenyan’s lives through the technology we provide as Safaricom and to work on the platforms that we provide,” she replies.

What she is though, and this no one can deny, is a rock upon which the foundation of the Kenyan, nay, African technological scape, is built. If you Google her, because I did, you get about 75,400 results. And one of them asks, rather cheekily, “What was Juliana Rotich famous for?” There is an answer, incidentally. “Rotich was a prominent public speaker on technology. She also worked as a strategic adviser for several companies, including Microsoft 4Afrika and the chemicals manufacturer BASF. Her work earned many honors, including the German Africa Prize in 2019.” It is not even remotely an apt summary. She is no has-been. Her new role at

Safaricom, one of the leading technology companies in Africa, is to proffer solutions for all the fintech arms of the company.

As co-founder of Ushahidi, iHub, BRCK and Boya Inc (YC W22) and a board member for the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Board as well as Standard Group PLC, and an alumnus of the MIT Media Lab, Rotich’s background is as diverse as it is impactful. I first spot Rotich at iHub when Jack Dorsey is in town. The atmosphere is collegial, and everyone seems to know everyone. It has been a while; I gather, since the local techies found themselves in each other’s company. “The tech community has been evolving. One of the things I look at when I think of iHub is how it was the offshoot of what we were doing with Ushahidi. We wanted to create a space where people could meet, collaborate, and feel at home because we used to have to meet in supermarkets that had good wi-fi or any specific random places that had good wi-fi. iHub was about having a home. We have since seen a lot of companies, careers and organisations come out of it.”

Women who were in tech then felt fully included from the get-go. Equality was woven into the DNA of iHub, and the social capital it has generated a double whammy. Women have reached out to her for mentorship, and even though Safaricom keeps her hands full, she is giving back. “Sometimes you don’t realise that some of your difficult experiences in founding companies and trying to scale them – that it can be useful to someone else. Lately I have been finding myself spending more time on meetups with female leaders keen on learning how to lead tech organisations. I really enjoy leveraging on my experiences to help them grow.” She is an investor in several companies that speak to her. “I fund companies if I like the idea, if it fills a need and if I am already a customer. I look at the founder to see how I can help them meet their objectives and the role I can play, and, if what they are offering is something in need. I don’t just invest in tech either.”

The biggest challenge for female founders is an almost universal one –raising capital; and, naturally growth. “Scaling is not trivial, and neither is finding a market fit. It’s ok to start with a niche market. The question is how to grow it and reach others who need your product or service. The channels people use to discover information now are highly fragmented. There are many of us who grew up in a market where we just had one or two channels, and I don’t mean TV channels. I mean there was TV, there was radio, and then there was print. But how are you going to explain your business in two minutes? Discoverability is a challenge.” Then there is creating a support network for women leaders. “You have to be intentional about creating these especially if you have switched countries or continents. The support system does not just congeal around you. You have to play a part in crafting and cultivating that. You can work with a career coach, therapist, or mentor. Approach it with a way of giving back. Think of it as reverse coaching.”

Rotich did find her own tribe over the years. High-achieving women who have been in government, academia and health tech who have had her back. I ask if the tech industry has been friendly to her and she says “I would not say the tech industry has been friendly. I have been in rooms where I have been the only woman. I think if you know your subject matter in and out, there won’t be any questions. But I have had to dial up that subject matter knowledge. Which is not a problem. I have had to take up my space to represent myself and my organisation. And what you do in that particular space is, you do your thing, do it well, and do it to the best of your ability. In terms of whether it is friendly or not, I think sometimes you just have to focus on what needs to be done. Some environments are conducive, some environments are not. You face reality as is, not as you wish it would be. Just go for it and do what you need to do.”

Female investors such as Rotich are rare. As a founder, she is aware it is about taking a risk on a person that a business may or may not succeed so “you may not always see an upside. There are a lot of opportunities to invest in financial services, and in unmet needs.” McKinsey report of fintech in Africa identifies white space opportunities around wealth management, insurance, supply chain technology and health tech. Areas where value can be created and that as Safaricom, they are investigating.

“The transition from tech entrepreneur to employment was actually quite smooth. Safaricom are evolving into a tech company and the idea is to transform lives and fill a need. We build software and solutions which we take to market. There’s a lot in common doing what I do now and what I did then.” Some of the powerful platforms Safaricom is building include the plug and play Daraja, a developer’s portal where they work with M-Pesa APIs, and the M-Pesa app that does more than offer payment solutions. “At the core of it, I’m a nerd. I like to see how things work. I’ve put together highperformance teams. That is something that I really enjoy. Having us work together, to deliver something that hasn’t been delivered, reveals Rotich who has all those start-ups to thank for picking up lessons. “With time, you grow this muscle and see what works and doesn’t work.” What works? Being purpose driven and customer focused.

“One of the things I want to mention,” concludes Rotich, “is the challenge of the evolving context of technology, innovation and data privacy and how we use tech. As Safaricom, we have been innovating around the data privacy question. How does a company interact in a way that a customer completes a transaction without their data being compromised? I just want CIOs and techies to know that it is possible to innovate around data privacy. We have done it and continue to do it and protect customer data end to end by collaborating and working to make our APIs better, train and develop talent for all of us, for the whole ecosystem.”

ARTICLE by STEVE MBEGO & KEVIN Namunwa