Lessons Learnt: Expanding Into Kenya

SweepSouth was launched in South Africa in June 2014, and soft-launched in Kenya at the end of 2019. We spoke to co-founder and CEO, Aisha Pandor, about their company's learnings and experience in taking the leap north.

- Aisha Pandor

Q How did you know SweepSouth was ready to expand into a new market?

I think we waited too long to launch into our first international market. We knew we were ready once we had a good product market fit in our core market (South Africa), and once we could operationalise well, with predictable outcomes and projections (i.e. put x investment into marketing, and expect y additional customers, and onboard z additional SweepStars). Once you understand the dynamics of your business well, it’s a good time to launch into a new market. There are so many new learnings that you can’t anticipate until you’re actively operating in a different market.

Q Which African countries did you investigate, and why did you settle on Kenya?

We’re really interested in East Africa and West Africa in general as exciting regions for expansion. What we liked about Kenya was that it felt like an in-between in terms of culture, market segment and dynamics, and smartphone and internet penetration, when compared to West Africa.

Q How did you do your market research there?

Our market research involved many interviews with Kenyan entrepreneurs and tech company employees, understanding business governance challenges, market interviews with people who represented our ideal customer and SweepStar profiles, and also just being in the market in person and getting a sense of the culture.