Kenya’s national investment promotion agency and the East Africa Venture Capital Association (EAVCA) said on Thursday they had renewed a partnership aimed at accelerating private capital investment into the country, as Nairobi seeks to cement its status as the region’s leading investment hub.

Invest Kenya, the state agency responsible for attracting investment, and EAVCA, an industry body representing private equity and venture capital investors, signed the renewed agreement on Aug. 20, according to a statement from Invest Kenya.

The partnership will focus on connecting international and domestic investors with Kenyan businesses, building investable deal pipelines and sharing market intelligence to guide investment decisions, the agency said.

“Private capital is shaping the future of economic growth,” Invest Kenya Chief Executive John Mwendwa said at the signing.

“Kenya continues to strengthen its position as one of Africa’s leading investment destinations, and our partnership with EAVCA will focus on mobilising private capital into priority sectors, advancing investment policy reforms, strengthening market intelligence and deepening public-private collaboration.”

EAVCA Chief Executive Christine Maina said the agreement would strengthen the link between investors allocating capital and the public institutions that shape Kenya’s investment environment.

“For EAVCA, success will be measured not simply by how well we promote Kenya, but by how effectively we turn that engagement into investment, stronger businesses and long-term economic value,” Maina said, according to her remarks at the signing.

Under the agreement, the two organisations will run joint investment missions and roadshows and work to develop Kenya’s pipeline of investable opportunities, Invest Kenya said.

The partnership will also include capacity-building programmes to improve “investor readiness” among local companies seeking institutional funding, and will feed into policy engagement on reforms to Kenya’s investment climate.

The renewed cooperation comes as East Africa’s private capital market has expanded in recent years. The region attracted $4.1 billion across nearly 500 private capital deals between 2021 and 2025.

Kenya accounted for 61% of regional deal volume and 87% of deal value in 2025, the data showed, with venture capital representing 60% of transactions over the past three years.

Kenya’s startup funding, a subset of the broader private capital market, has cooled slightly this year. Kenyan startups raised 16.3 billion Kenyan shillings in the first half of 2026, just under the 17 billion shillings raised over the same period in 2025, according to data from Africa: The Big Deal, a platform that tracks African startup funding.

That left Kenya third on the continent for startup funding, trailing Egypt at 42.3 billion shillings and Nigeria at 32.8 billion shillings. On equity funding specifically, Nigeria led with $214 million, ahead of Egypt with $183 million, South Africa with $66 million and Kenya with $46 million.

Private debt has also become a growing part of the region’s financing mix. East Africa accounted for more than a third of Africa’s private debt deals in 2025, with agribusiness and fintech among the main recipients of that funding.

EAVCA was founded in 2013 and serves as an industry association for private capital investors in East Africa, including development finance institutions, private equity and venture capital funds, family offices and impact investors.

The association has more than 100 members managing close to $3 billion in funds and operates offices in Kenya and Uganda.

Invest Kenya, formally known as the Kenya Investment Authority, is the government agency mandated to promote and facilitate both domestic and foreign investment into the country.

It has signed a series of sector-focused cooperation agreements in recent months as part of a broader push to diversify sources of financing for the Kenyan economy.

Kenyan officials have said they want to reduce the country’s reliance on sovereign borrowing by drawing in more equity-based private financing for sectors including renewable energy, digital infrastructure, manufacturing and agro-processing.

Nairobi is scheduled to host EAVCA’s 10th Annual Private Capital Conference on Sept. 2-3, 2026, an event that draws fund managers, pension funds and policymakers from across the region to discuss investment trends in East Africa.

Kenya has positioned itself as a gateway for private equity and venture capital investment into East Africa in recent years, competing with regional peers including Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda to attract fund managers and institutional investors.

The government has cited legal and regulatory reforms, including changes aimed at easing the establishment of investment funds, as part of its strategy to draw in more private capital.