Estonia’s flagship startup event, Latitude59, held its third Nairobi edition last week, marking the first time a syndicated investment from the Nairobi Business Angel Network (NaiBAN) was awarded live on stage.
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The US$50,000 investment went to this year’s Pitch Competition winner, bringing European and African tech ecosystems closer together.
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The Nairobi event attracted about 2,500 participants, including nearly 200 investors and almost 900 startups, representing 50 countries.
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The L59 Pitch Competition received 222 applications from 27 nations, highlighting the increasing cross-border interest in African early-stage startups.
“This week proved that when our ecosystems meet as equals, the boundaries of what’s possible disappear,” said Kaspar Kitsing, the project lead for the third Latitude59 satellite event in Africa.
The winning startup, Mediakits.io, offers a platform for influencers to present their achievements, audience insights, and past collaborations. With customizable templates, real-time analytics, and secure data handling, the startup helps users attract sponsorships and partnerships by showcasing their value in a visually compelling and data-driven format.
Founded in 2025 and backed by the Safaricom Spark Accelerator, the company will receive a trip to the main Latitude59 event in Tallinn, Estonia in 2026, a conference booth, and fast-track entry to Estonia’s Pitch Competition pre-finals.
Additional startups including Vertical Lake, LOOP Pet Food, Acre Insights, Beba-Beggie, PaydHQ, and ProPath Sports, were awarded advisory and co-working packages aimed at supporting fundraising, commercial due diligence, and go-to-market strategies.
The Nairobi edition reflects Latitude59’s broader strategy of connecting African founders with global capital and expertise while enabling ecosystem collaboration among policymakers, investors, and corporate leaders.
“The one thing I want to leave with from the event is deeper networks to help scale our company,” said David Nandwa, the founder of HoneyCoin.
The Estonian startup scene, home to more than 1,400 startups in a population of 1.3 million, has already seeded firms such as Bolt, Admiral Markets, and Yaga in Africa.
According to last year's event speech winner, Gatwiri Njogu, her startup ‘Vunapay’ benefitted from improved visibility to other founders and investors, thanks to her involvement with Latitude59. Vunapay enables small holder farmers to receive instant payments when selling their produce to co-operatives relieving them of cash flow constraints.
“Startups should engage with Latitude59 because the event is amazing for exposure,” Gatwiri told The Kenyan Wall Street.
Not only did the founders get an opportunity to be inspired by what others are doing, but they also learned from others with almost similar solutions. This gave many an opportunity to cultivate new ideas to iterate their own startup models, evaluate incredible partnerships, and determine what markets to consider for their future plans.
“If you meet people from other markets, it gives you the nuances of what it means for your solution to operate there,” said Samuel Njuguna, founder of Chumz.
Caleb Maru, the founder of Tech Safari — a renowned platform for tech stories — said that Latitude59 had grown considerably over the past three years due to the immense value it accorded founders who networked on their space.
“We love collaborating with Latitude59 and we have learnt a lot from how they build communities,” he said.
Latitude59 Kenya 2025 was delivered in cooperation with the Estonian government’s ESTDEV through the Digital and Green Innovation Programme, part of the EU’s D4D Hub Twin Transition Team Europe Initiative, alongside private partners including Civitta, Smart Africa, Belva, KOOD, EIS, and Fienta.
