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In June 2024, I traveled to Kenya as part of Tuck’s Global Leadership Program. Guided by Professors Ramon Lecuona Torras and Ron Adner, we explored Kenya’s entrepreneurial landscape—one shaped by innovation, adaptability, and a rapidly evolving digital economy. As part of the program, I met Marie Nielsen from Antler.

Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm that partners with exceptional founders to build and scale tech startups from the ground up. With investments in over 1,400 companies across 30 cities on six continents—including Nairobi and newly added Lagos—Antler supports entrepreneurs solving meaningful global challenges.

A recent post by one of Antler‘s portfolio companies highlighted the need for more experience sharing on go-to-market strategies for African tech startups. We took on the challenge and mapped out four localized go-to-market strategies to uncover what works and what doesn’t on the continent.

We interviewed six companies operating across Kenya and other African markets. These included fintechs, edtechs, agri-tech platforms, and skincare brands.

Our goal: distill the lessons learned and craft a practical guide to go-to-market strategies for African startups.

What’s Inside the Paper

“Winning Go-to-Market Strategies for Early-Stage African Tech Startups” explores four key go-to-market archetypes:

• Content Strategies: Startups like Uncover and Money254 build brand trust and drive customer acquisition by creating educational content that addresses customer needs before investing in paid advertising.
• Network-Based Strategies: Hello Tractor leverages a decentralized network of booking agents who act as local representatives to facilitate transactions and expand market reach across multiple African countries.
• Partnership-Driven Approaches: Companies like Craydel and MosMos establish credibility and scale by forming strategic alliances with established institutions that not only provide direct access to target customers but also reinforce their mission.
• Direct Sales Tactics: From B2B relationship building to WhatsApp commerce, startups like HoneyCoin and Uncover are reimagining sales models to meet customers where they are.

We also examine cross-cutting success aspects like the imperative of building trust early, adapting communication styles to local cultural norms, and why founders must remain hands-on in go-to-market execution.

We hope this paper becomes a useful compass for founders navigating African markets and to continue to build on the CDS-Antler collaborations to give more students that chance to take the classroom to practice.

👉 Access the full paper on Antler’s website
📄 Co-authored by Marie Nielsen, Kosen Kenta, and Valeria Tiffer T’25