Companies

Somen brothers link up in tech startup

somen

The Somen brothers Jonathan (right) and David. FILE PHOTO | NMG

David Somen has joined his brother Jonathan Somen’s cloud services startup, Eldama Technologies, in a move that reunites one of Kenya’s most successful tech duo.

David is stepping into the position of executive chairman at Eldama Technologies, a company set up by Jonathan and his wife, Petra, in 2016.

The Somen brothers have been building tech companies since 1994, having founded six firms and sold three.

The two are best known as the co-founders of AccessKenya, a company listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange until it was bought by Dimension Data in 2013 for Sh3 billion.

David also has experience from a string of tech companies, locally and internationally, including his current posting as the managing director of Virtual IT Limited, a UK-based firm. Terry Wafula, a former AccessKenya employee, also joined the startup as head of sales.

“(They) have a lot of experience in cloud. We’re leveraging their expertise to accelerate the growth of the company and to build more services,” Jonathan said.

He added that the shareholding of the company, currently split between him and his wife, will not change with the appointment of David. Jonathan said they have invested about Sh41.2 million ($400,000) in the company since its inception.

READ: Ex-AccessKenya MD Somen sets up cloud firm

Eldama has 25 employees and licenses cloud computing services to about 2,000 machines in Kenya.

Eldama targets both small and large enterprises with one of its notable clients being Chandaria Industries.

Uptake of cloud services in Kenya is rising as businesses seek to cut costs and eliminate the hustle involved in storing their data and applications in-house.

Eldama estimates that penetration of cloud services currently stands at below five per cent but is expected to rise with increased investment in the sector.