B2B Marketplace Wasoko, Zanzibar Team to Build Innovation Hub

Aiming to make Zanzibar a home for tech companies from Africa and around the world, B2B eCommerce marketplace Wasoko has partnered with the Zanzibar government to open an innovation hub on the island.

The Wasoko Innovation Hub is a private-public partnership that is part of a government initiative called Silicon Zanzibar, which aims to attract tech companies and more than 500 industry professionals to the island, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS Tuesday (Aug. 30).

“Through our new partnership, we’re proud to be working alongside a government which is heavily invested in supporting this mission and are honored to be a founding partner for Silicon Zanzibar,” said Wasoko CEO and Founder Daniel Yu. “We strongly believe Wasoko will be the first in a long line of tech companies to establish a presence on the island.”

To help draw tech companies, Silicon Zanzibar will streamline the issuance of work visas and offer incentives under an existing Free Economic Zone program. In addition, the city in which the Hub will be located is adding hundreds of residential and commercial units along the ocean shore, according to the release.

“We are providing an open and enabling environment for all tech companies and their team members to be based in Zanzibar — one of the world’s most attractive destinations — allowing everyone building tech for Africa to be based in Africa,” said Zanzibar Minister of Investment and Economic Development Mudrick Soraga.

As PYMNTS reported in March, Yu founded Wasoko — which is a B2B marketplace that enables informal retailers to order products via SMS or mobile app — six years ago in a bid to disrupt a billion-dollar sector with huge growth potential across the continent.

Read more: African B2B Marketplace Wasoko Takes On Supply Chain Inefficiencies

“Anything that can be done to improve the efficiency and ultimately improve the affordability and availability of these essential goods for a billion and a half people is going to be a huge business,” Yu told PYMNTS in an interview.

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