About

John Karanja is the Founder of Whive.com which is a Mobile and Web social media platform where people interact using different forms of media. Whive.com has over 120,000 members across East Africa and was a Winner at the Pivot 25 Mobile Technology Competition in 2011. John is also a Co-Founder of Crowdpesa.com a Location Based mobile application which provides a market place for African Merchants and Businesses. Crowdpesa has been listed as one of the 40 startups to watch in Africa and appeared at the first DEMO Africa conference in 2012.

John has a Masters degree in Political Sociology from the University of Oxford, England and a Bachelor of Business and Information Technology from Strathmore University, Kenya.

John has 7 years experience in developing mobile and web solutions both for small enterprises and larger organizations. John has recently been involved in a number of ongoing projects that involve the analysis of the social impact of ICT in Africa as well as projecting possible growth areas of ICT based solutions for the continent. In this regard John has been awarded the Vision2030 ICT Award 2011 for Innovation in Youth and Gender Sector by the Kenyan Government. He is also the First African Winner of the Nokia Open Screen Fund in 2009 as well as a nominee for the Tech4Africa Innovation Award 2011.

John writes on his personal blog www.JohnKaranja.com on issues concerning the growth of Africa as well as Technology as enabler for employment of the Youth in Africa. John’s hobbies include travelling to exotic places as well as mountain climbing.

 

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