Joel’s story on… a mobility revolution

Cars sat idle in driveways across Kenya while Joel spent nearly two weeks trying to rent one for his mother's visit. The disconnect would have been funny if it weren't so frustrating. But for Joel, that frustration sparked something bigger - a vision for Moti, the mobility platform that's now connecting thousands of vehicle owners with renters across Kenya and preparing to expand globally. His entrepreneurial journey began long before this moment, but this was when everything clicked into place.

Joel's entrepreneurial spirit was evident early in childhood from launching his first ventures in the classroom to building Moti today. The path from classroom entrepreneur to mobility pioneer makes sense when we go back to the beginning…

Joel's upbringing was transient by nature. He traveled constantly between countries as part of the family business, moving products from Kenya to markets across Europe and the United States. Visitors came and went - his mother, family members, friends traveling to Kenya. Each time, Joel witnessed the same struggle: what should have been simple - securing a rental car - became an unexpectedly difficult ordeal. They navigated fragmented processes, spent days chasing availability, and hit dead ends with rental companies. The pattern was unmistakable.

At first, he put it down to bad luck, until he couldn't unsee the emerging pattern: friends and connections who owned cars always seemed to have them available when Joel didn't need them and unavailable when he did. The inefficiency was glaring, and Joel saw an opportunity where others only saw inconvenience. Fortunately, Joel was in the right place at the right time. His college was actively calling for entrepreneurs and innovators to pitch their ideas and he seized the moment, pitched the business idea that directly addressed this frustration, won the award and set his business in motion.

What began as simple engagements with customers and car owners (from individuals to rental companies) in a WhatsApp group generated hundreds of bookings within the first few days. Joel wasn't pushing the product - the market was pulling it. People had been waiting for this solution. That scrappy start grew into a real marketplace where rental car demand compounded, car owners became entrepreneurs, and Moti evolved from a project into a full-scale mobility platform serving both peer-to-peer users and professional rental operators. 

"It was a tough start with the car rental companies who didn't take us ‘new guys’ seriously, forcing us to really think outside the box. We realized that the majority of rental cars in Kenya actually belonged to individuals, and they were more than willing to lend them out for guaranteed compensation. That's when it clicked: individuals held the key to unlocking supply in Kenya."

Joel’s vision was so much more than just connecting car owners and renters - he was building mobility infrastructure from the ground up. He saw Moti as a full-stack mobility solution, empowering Kenyans to become micro-entrepreneurs while giving established rental operators the tools to compete in a digital-first market, democratizing access to transportation and unlocking economic opportunity. Joel knew that technical capabilities were fundamental in realising Moti’s full potential and Denis was brought in as a technical co-founder, to build a powerful platform that could support thousands of users. 8000 trips booked on Moti, 2500 vehicles and 250 hosts and counting - numbers that reflect a platform that has moved beyond experimentation into operational scale.

"I'm a high agency individual who doesn't sit well with 'normal'. I think I'm wired to build systems but not operate within them, and that's perhaps why I went down the entrepreneurial path. I'm comfortable with ambiguity and unconventional ideas. I really believe Africa is a continent that needs builders who can focus on building solutions to our challenges."

Africa's infrastructure is lagging as the continent races toward holding 20% of the world's population by 2030. Joel saw this gap not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to build something transformative. A big-picture thinker and vision-driven founder, he naturally pulls people into his mission while maintaining detail-oriented execution and strategic thinking. Calm under pressure, curious, and remarkably resilient, Joel possesses the traits needed to turn ambitious ideas into operational reality. With Moti, he's revolutionizing how people book, rent, and access cars, building mobility infrastructure for Africa's future. Importantly, Moti is built on trust. Every feature - from KYC documentation and GPS tracking to insurance integration and partnerships with repair stations - is designed with reliability at its core. A platform where both car owners and renters can participate with confidence. 

“Early on, I thought my motivation was the numbers, revenue increasing, users growing. But I was exhausted and close to burnout. Then we surveyed our customers, and everything shifted. Hearing stories of real impact was a moment of reflection. I realized this is a company built for impact and the numbers are just a measure of how many lives we're changing. That reframing saved me and changed my relationship with the business. It's about scaling with purpose and that's all the motivation I need.”

From Africa to the world, this is just the beginning. The same problem Joel identified in Kenya - inefficient access to vehicles, untapped economic potential, fragmented offerings - exists globally. Now, with a proven platform and a track record of impact, Moti is preparing to enter new markets starting with the GCC. Momentum is building as capital is raised to accelerate this expansion and capture the growing demand for flexible mobility solutions across emerging markets. Moti has unveiled massive opportunity, built the infrastructure to capture it, and proven the playbook to scale. Joel is transforming how the world moves.

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