Premac Care Wins KSh 1.29M ($10,000) Women in Tech Grant

Premac Care has won an equity-free KSh 1.29M ($10,000) grant through Standard Chartered Foundation's Women in Tech Kenya programme to support its nurse-booking business.

It is one of seven funded startups in Cohort 9, run with Village Capital and Strathmore's iBizAfrica. Fifteen women founders completed the 12-week programme, with the seven awards sharing a total of about KSh 9M ($70,000).

Premac Care connects families with trained nurses for postnatal care, recovery after hospital discharge and support for older relatives. It provides care outside hospital rather than operating a ward.

For another example of early-stage funding in Kenya, our report on Flowt’s small-business lending round examines a different model from grant-funded care services.

What the other six do

ChipuRobo sells locally made robotics kits for classrooms. FishBox Africa builds software and feeders for fish farmers. Seta Farm grows mushrooms on waste and pays women and young people to do it. Uptyke Consulting, Nakuru Tubers and Trident Analytics complete the paid list.

Judges scored model, market, novelty, growth and social effect. Since 2017 the Kenya programme has backed 107 startups and paid out more than KSh 51.5M (about $399,000). Standard Chartered Kenya chief executive Birju Sanghrajka said the course is meant to add skills and contacts, not only cash.

What KSh 1.29M ($10,000) will and will not do

The grant is early-stage funding, not a guarantee of expanded clinical capacity. Its impact will depend on how the company uses it and whether customers continue to book its services.

Kenyan health-tech still lives on thin grants and founder savings. A foundation cheque of this size is working capital, not a Series A. Readers who need a nurse should still ask who employs the worker and who is liable if a visit goes wrong. The grant does not answer that. The company has to.