Kea Simmons’ journey to establishing a successful business in East Africa is founded on two things; culture and heritage. The 42-year-old former-US army personnel who has been to 46 countries and lived in eight, started eyeing Kenya as an investment destination more than a decade ago.
“I first visited Kenya in 2011 on the invitation of a friend I had met in Afghanistan where I worked as a contractor. As a person heavily invested in tracing my heritage and culture, this was a welcome opportunity. Besides, I had met Africans from many other African nations and not a single Kenyan and his endless praise for the country captured my imagination quite well.”
Born and brought up in South Carolina, she’d never planned to relocate to Kenya. She admits that once she landed in Mombasa for the first time, and traversed the country as a tourist, all she saw were the many business opportunities she could explore.
“When I went back after my vacation, I had all these businesses lined up in my mind and I knew I’d come back and try them out.”
Carving a niche
While on one of her travels in Estonia—a trip she considers spiritual—Kea’s idea concretised.
“I witnessed the similarities of the history of native Estonians and the black community. This stirred the idea of culture exchange tourism in me. As a traveller and a cultural enthusiast, I discovered that cultural exchange was an unexploited niche in the larger travel industry.”
The plan was to connect travellers, especially black Americans, with locals in the African countries they travel. After all, she says, black folks can trace back their ancestry here.
“It is great to come and experience safaris, but that is not all that Kenya has, the people are what makes the country beautiful and what makes that exchange important for us. We saw the chance to also introduce, through tourism, investment opportunities in Kenya and the whole region to our customers,” she says.
It is not only her dalliance with the country that informed her choice to settle for Kenya as an investment destination. “Kenya is strategically placed. With an expansive coast which means trade, and favourable weather, Kenya provided a conducive environment for those who wanted not just to invest in Kenya, but also to settle. There is also the ease of doing business that is key to any business's success”
In 2018, that idea materialised.
“I organised a trip to Kenya for a group of people from America. The success was enormous and everyone that travelled or knew about the trip posed a question, why not set it up as a business? Kea and a partner set up their first successful business in Kenya," she says.
“I had tried several other businesses and failed. But the spiritual encounter in Estonia was a confirmation to try once more. We pulled resources together and registered the company in America with a local subsidiary.”
Their initial capital investment was $200,000 (about Sh20 million then). This went into setting up systems here, hiring people and other operational costs that come with a startup.
“Our mandate as a company was to provide travel concierge services and promote and provide relocation assistance to our target clients back in the US,” she adds.
Business growth
The business grew in bounds and saw the successful expeditions and a handful of relocations until 2023 when the two partners parted ways.
“In business, as is in life, partnerships end, and our time together was up. The separation was not amicable and this set me back. I was depressed and developed unmanageable anxiety.”
As a businesswoman who had tried several times and failed and still went back to trying again, she dusted herself and started to walk again.
“I took a small but well-deserved break and then came back. It is not easy to kill passion. And business ideas born out of passion, according to me, have a higher chance for success. The greatest investment one can make in their business, I believe, is passion. Money and other factors of production can start you off, but without passion, it is hard to succeed.”
In late 2023, she registered Traverze Culture in America and its subsidiary Traverze Culture Africa in Kenya.
“The name is inspired by the company’s vision to explore culture exchange as a trigger to investment and relocation to Africa.”
Pemanent relocation
The partnership breakup triggered her own relocation.
“With our first company, I didn’t reside in Kenya fully, I’d visit on a need basis. Setting up my own company, turned out, would be the start of my relocation journey. I sold off everything attached to my name in America, borrowed money from family and friends to top up my savings for the new venture I was building and relocated permanently to Kenya. Now I can manage my business from a point of experience and understanding.”
Kea invested Sh38 million ($300,000) in Traverze Culture, which is now in Panama and Belize offering similar services in Kenya.
This move was strategic in two ways; “one, if asked about my experience in relocating to Kenya, I’d give an honest opinion about it as a person who has successfully relocated and led a thriving business.
"Two, I get to manage the business in real-time, every business person will tell you that this is important. I have established good systems no doubt, but there are times that my hands-on attention is needed.”
Traverze Culture now has a local physical office.
“We have a team of six permanent employees, plus an additional six to 12 interns at any given time. The core of our core team is young women drawn from Kibra, Nairobi,” says Kea.
It is a journey back to Eden when you think about it. “We have testimonies of people that are doing amazing works in places as far as Diani in the coast. This goes to show that this is their Eden, it is their place of settlement and success. We anticipate more people to settle in different places in this country and experience not just the beauty but the potential it has in terms of doing business.”
Since 2023 Traverze Culture has brought to the country about 300 tourists and is in the process of helping some to settle.
Product diversification
In 2024, Kea had an accident that led her to the emergency room of a local hospital.
“The quality of care I received at the hospital was exceptional and I experienced a lightbulb moment. All along I had never needed medical services while in the country, so I had no way of experiencing and by extension, having an opinion about it. A quick background digging of the hospital, I found out that it is JCI accredited which puts it in the same level as hospitals in America. That introduced a new product—medical tourism. Towards the end of this year, we are flying in about two hundred people for medical tourism. If this can be done in countries like India, it can also be done here.”
Traverze Culture is exploring other areas such as agriculture, real estate and manufacturing as possible investment areas that its clients can take advantage of.
“In the near future, we're looking at having a presence in 68 countries around the world, introduce different products and services and happily witness lives change because of cross-border opportunities,”she says.
