Oye — an Alternative Circle venture — named to Bloomberg's 25 African Startups to Watch in 2026.Read the feature →Oye — an Alternative Circle venture — named to Bloomberg's 25 African Startups to Watch in 2026.Read the feature →Oye — an Alternative Circle venture — named to Bloomberg's 25 African Startups to Watch in 2026.Read the feature →Oye — an Alternative Circle venture — named to Bloomberg's 25 African Startups to Watch in 2026.Read the feature →
Oye — an Alternative Circle venture — named to Bloomberg's 25 African Startups to Watch in 2026.Read the feature →Oye — an Alternative Circle venture — named to Bloomberg's 25 African Startups to Watch in 2026.Read the feature →Oye — an Alternative Circle venture — named to Bloomberg's 25 African Startups to Watch in 2026.Read the feature →Oye — an Alternative Circle venture — named to Bloomberg's 25 African Startups to Watch in 2026.Read the feature →
Kevin Mutiso

Builder. Partner. Host.

Kevin
Mutiso

Founder of Alternative Circle. Chairman of Kenya's digital finance industry. Building durable African ventures worth building — for the seventh generation forward.

See the ventures →Work with me

01 — Ventures

Four operating bets.

Alternative Circle, Shika, Oye, Dhahabu Bulk Traders. One thesis: own the operating layer.

02 — Podcast

Let The Cake Bake.

Long-form conversations with the people behind the work. The show is live, with new episodes every Friday.

03 — Writing

A book in progress.

If — with Gragory Nyauchi. Plus essays, op-eds, and selected press.

The numbers

The work, in measurements that matter.

KES 109.8B
Disbursed under DFSAK
Cumulative, digital credit industry
6.6M
Loans facilitated
Under DCP regulation
75%
Reduction in harassment cases
DFSAK consumer protection programme
29,453
Oye riders registered
300,000 in the station catchment
$1.1M
Shika seed
CreditInfo, 2017
4
Launch markets
Dhahabu — Caspian + Gulf

Selected ventures

One vehicle. Multiple operating bets.

All ventures →
ActiveFounder & CEO · 2015 — present

Alternative Circle

The parent vehicle. The thesis: build durable, billion-dollar African ventures by owning the operating layer — capital, distribution, and category-defining product — instead of renting it.

Read the case study→
ActiveCo-founder · 2021 — present

Oye

Pre-negotiated commodities and insurance for the boda boda economy. Equity-backed by Britam. Total Energies, Vivo, Galana, Mogo on the platform.

Read the case study→
ActiveChairman · 2026 — present

Dhahabu Bulk Traders

The trade pipeline for premium African brands. Curates independent producers, builds the export-grade machinery around them, places them in markets the incumbents have overlooked. Caspian Corridor first. Stir Me and Guka's — independent Kenyan brands — are the first two lines on the pipe.

Read the case study→
ExitedCo-founder · 2016 — 2020

Shika

The digital lending app that proved the thesis. Raised $1.1M from CreditInfo in 2017, helped birth Kenya's digital credit category, and seeded the regulatory work that became DFSAK.

Read the case study→

From the writing

A book in progress and the trail of essays that led here.

The book — in progress

If

“Capitalism is no longer a zero-sum game. The new aim of a capitalist is to always build an ever bigger cake. It’s about the creation of wealth.”

With Gragory Nyauchi. A book on building durable African ventures and the philosophy of wealth creation across generations.

Read more →

Selected press

The arc, briefly.

All press →
March 2017
TechMoran
Alternative Circle's Shika app raises $1.1m from CreditInfo
May 2024
Daily Nation
Harassment of borrowers by digital lenders drops by 75pc
August 2025
CNBC Africa
The boda-boda gold rush: Fintech and Kenya's billion-shilling informal economy

Working on something worth building?

Let’s talk.

Get in touch →