Nakuru-based ZenDawa's clever innovation earns it top East African tech award
Wilfred Chege, ZenDawa co-founder and CEO alongside Dr. Victor Mwandale, who is also ZenDawa's co-founder.
Nakuru-based health-tech startup ZenDawa has been crowned the 2025 KPMG East Africa Private Enterprise Tech Innovator Winner, cementing its place among the region’s most promising technology ventures.
ZenDawa, cofounded in 2022 by Wilfred Chege, runs a decentralized web and app-based e-pharmacy platform that connects patients with local chemists while helping small, independently owned pharmacies digitize their operations.
Through the ZenDawa marketplace, customers can order prescription and non-prescription drugs online, with deliveries fulfilled by neighbourhood chemists within the company’s network, offering last mile medicine distribution.
The start up also provides participating chemists with free point-of-sale systems, enabling them to record sales data that can later be used to access collateral-free credit through embedded financing.
“Our goal is to empower small, community-based pharmacies to thrive in the digital age. Most chemists in Kenya- like many across Sub-Saharan Africa- still operate using pen and paper, even though such small pharmacies dispense more than 80 percent of the region’s pharmaceutical products,” says Chege, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
Interface of the ZenDawa web and app-based e-pharmacy platform that connects patients with local chemists while helping small, independently owned pharmacies digitize their operations.
He adds that by digitizing them, the company is not only helping them grow their businesses but also improving access to affordable medicine for ordinary Kenyans.
The platform uses an AI-driven credit scoring system to determine the eligibility of pharmacies for financial support, based on their transaction data.
“We’ve improved sales by up to 30 per cent for the best-performing pharmacies in our network. And for patients, especially those managing chronic illnesses like diabetes, the platform ensures consistent refills and reliable access to medication, cutting back their travel time to hospitals for refills,” Chege adds.
Currently, ZenDawa serves about 8,000 unique monthly users across Nakuru, Nairobi, and Kiambu counties, with a network of over 820 chemists, more than half (570) of them in Nakuru.
The company’s recognition by KPMG marks a major milestone for Nakuru’s growing innovation ecosystem.
The home grown health-tech enterprise will now represent East Africa at the Global Tech Innovator Showcase by KPMG, scheduled for early November.
The global event will bring together winners from 21 countries, offering ZenDawa an opportunity to pitch alongside leading startups from other regions.
“Being recognized at the regional level proves that meaningful innovation can come from anywhere, even from Nakuru. We’re excited to represent East Africa on the global stage and hope to clinch the top prize too,” says Chege.
ZenDawa stood out after months of competition and eight high-powered pitch events, emerging top among ten remarkable ventures redefining innovation across East Africa.
The Nakuru-based startup’s rise from a local health-tech venture to a regional winner highlights how Kenya’s emerging tech ecosystem continues to bridge healthcare gaps through digital inclusion.
The award, part of the KPMG Private Enterprise Tech Innovator competition, recognizes startups using technology to solve Africa’s pressing challenges.