Led by SSI · Nairobi, Kenya
Scaling Sustainable Industries (SSI) takes proven, revenue-generating, green businesses and gives them the expertise, capital, digital support, and investor access they need to reach commercial scale — turning stalled potential into jobs, growth, and a more sustainable economy.
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi — out of Africa, always something new.
Who we are
Kenya’s ecosystem is good at starting businesses. It is not yet built to scale them. Incubators, accelerators, and seed funds have produced a pipeline of companies with validated models and real revenues — then left them to cross the gap to commercial scale without the expertise, capital, or investor connections they need.
SSI is a privately registered Kenyan company that invests in and supports young companies using sustainable technologies to build the economy of tomorrow. We are the originator and strategic lead of the Scaling and Investment Derisking Programme, working to build the scaling infrastructure Kenya’s green economy is missing — and to transition it, over time, into a self-sustaining scaling support mechanism through the establishment and operation of a revolving fund.
Scale
Diagnostics, strategy, and hands-on advisory built for businesses that are already operating and growing — not for early-stage validation. Targeted AI and cutting-edge technology support.
Capital
Direct capital plus structured investor access, delivered by the same team — so there is no gap between technical support and the money.
Sustainability
A hard eligibility criterion, not a preference. Our sector expertise, investor network, and impact metrics are all built around it.
Flagship programme
A five-year programme that combines integrated scaling support, direct capital, and structured investor access for growth-stage green businesses in Kenya — a distinctive integrated model that delivers all three, for a single, clearly defined cohort.
Source — corrected €17.4M concept summary and the programme budget. The €12.1M is up to €3M in Phase 1 grants, €8.75M in Phase 2 convertible loans for 25 companies, and €350,000 to launch the bio-fermentation pilot. The scaling method is ScaleUpNation’s, built on close to 700 assessments of primarily European ventures and applied in Kenya through the ScaleUpScan against 15 Scale-Up Success Factors.
Phase 01
6 months · up to 100 companies · up to €30,000 grant money per company
A full scaling diagnosis, a defined 24-month growth strategy, and targeted expert support for the specific barriers holding each business back — delivered through structured voucher funding. Selection into Phase 2 is earned on performance.
Phase 02
Multi-year · 25 companies · up to €350,000 convertible loan per company
Individualised scaling implementation support — market development, digital, AI, human resources and technology — with financial restructuring, investment-readiness, and direct investor matching all the way through to capital close, financed by convertible loans. No handoff between advisory and the capital that follows it.
Beyond Phase 2, the convertible loans are designed to be recoverable: repayments and any success fees return to a revolving fund and back later cohorts, so the scaling infrastructure outlasts the grant that built it.
Methodology, instruments, and expertise are tuned to companies that are already operational and growing.
One team supports the business, prepares it for investment, and manages the relationship through due diligence to close.
We track revenue growth, profitability, capital closed, and jobs created — not deal flow or programme activity.
They decide which companies are invited into the scaling programme in the first place — not a preference applied afterwards.
Implementation depth, a sustainability and investor network, a validated diagnostic, and academic capacity — combined.
Where we focus
Our work spans the technologies and ecosystems where Kenya can build genuinely new, green, globally relevant industries.
01 / Flagship programme
Helping post-revenue green businesses across energy, circular economy, clean manufacturing, and sustainable agriculture make the jump to commercial scale.
See the programme02 / Pilot pre-investment study
Getting our hands dirty during phase one with practical investment work in innovative technologies that will craft the sustainable economy of tomorrow. Backing the latest developments in bio-fermentation — producing food and non-food products locally, and positioning Kenya as a regional leader in one of the industries of the future.
Delivered by a consortium
No single organisation has everything it takes to scale a business and close its capital. SSI leads the programme and brings the sustainability focus and investor network; our partners bring hands-on enterprise development, a validated scaling methodology, and academic capacity.
Strategic lead & originator
Enterprise development
Scaling methodology
Academic partner and scientific rigour
Get in touch
We’re talking with funders and strategic partners who want to help growth-stage green businesses reach scale. If that’s you, we’d like to hear from you.