CEO and co-founder of Innobid, Eliud Luutsa

Innobid wants to make public procurement more accessible, transparent, and fair. The platform is for those putting out tenders, bidding for tenders, and those wanting to keep a watchful eye on the goings on of both. Not only does it aim to serve entrepreneurs, governments, ordinary people and the private sector, it’s equalizing the playing field as it goes. 

It’s been three years since Innobid co-founder Eliud Luutsa and team became one of the winners of the South and East Africa edition of HackCorruption. What started as an idea for an advocacy platform for accountable procurement in Kenya and Namibia has since grown into a multi-layered solution that didn’t just automate processes for better transparency, but also built ways to actively include, advise, and support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and young entrepreneurs who have traditionally been locked out of lucrative contracts. We caught up with Eliud on Innobid’s growth, the power of community and how critical it is to support “impossible” solutions.

Matching MSMEs to appropriate opportunities

In Eliud’s home country of Kenya, public procurement accounted for 26% of the country’s GDP in 2020. Kenya’s informal economy forms an estimated 20 – 40% of Kenya’s GDP. Given the complexity and resource-intensive nature of bidding for tenders, small enterprises have traditionally struggled to access procurement opportunities. This then means that a huge chunk of – especially young – entrepreneurs would be locked out of opportunities that they might have the skills for, but neither the formality, resources, and access required to successfully bid for opportunities as vendors.

“It’s such a closed ecosystem that there is what we call in Kenya an elite group of companies that always get the same opportunities,” says Eliud.

A 2024 survey by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in Kenya with 5,960 respondents across the country, identified bribery, favouritism, abuse of office, tribalism and nepotism and embezzlement of public funds as the main forms of unethical behaviour and corruption in Kenya. 

“Yet we keep encouraging young people to try entrepreneurship, because it’s what economic empowerment means in Africa, because of the high population of young people”.

This is the gap that Eliud and team are seeking to close

By leveraging AI, Innobid does a couple of things to bring small and young businesses closer to procurement success. Vendors that register on the platform share information that matches them with available tender opportunities that fit their profile. Innobid also matches businesses with financial institutions willing to back them. This holistic approach ensures that access to capital and information does not hinder their participation.

Standing up, standing out

In July Innobid announced a strategic partnership with FasterCapital, a global startup accelerator and venture capital firm that supports early-stage tech innovators through its LaunchUp program. The partnership aims to accelerate Innobid’s market entry and scale its innovative solution across government, private, and global development sectors, primarily targeting Africa and emerging markets. 

Eliud shares that investors have resonated with the diverse professional backgrounds of Innobid’s team which enable them to create holistic solutions using both technological and social perspectives to create offerings that could more effectively solve complex problems.

“We have to go through a human-centred design process to develop a platform that actually serves human needs as well as taking a systems approach, that helps us think about corruption as a multi-faceted problem that can be manifested in different ways,” says Eliud.

InnoBid’s founding at HackCorruption in South Africa, 2022

He credits the HackCorruption program for creating a space where technologists, activists, and civil society participants come together to tackle such corruption challenges. He’s also drawn support and inspiration from teams and participants in Latin America, South Africa, and Namibia – sharing that participants from across the world celebrate each other’s wins and share contacts.

“We underestimate the value of shared experiences, especially in the kind of work we do, so finding people who also know that is so special and such communities just make a big difference.”

Innobid’s minimum viable product underwent successful peer testing and early pilot implementations in Kenya and Nairobi, even gaining recognition from the UN Youth Envoy. Over the next year with the support of FasterCapital, Innobid plans to onboard 3-5 anchor clients and complete 2-3 pilot projects, focusing on government agencies and development partners on the continent. Eliud envisions the platform being adopted globally as a means to ensure entrepreneurs have access to information and opportunities wherever they are.

“It’s so critical, especially on our continent and other developing countries where we see so many problems around us. It’s up to us young people to stand up and say “I can do something about it” and it’s up to the community and society to say “How can we support you to bring that to life?”

Samina Anwary