Kenya's Eyby Aims to Digitize Africa's Building Materials Sector

Kenyan startup Eyby is working to digitize Africa's building materials sector, an industry historically lagging in digital adoption. The platform aims to create a centralized digital marketplace connecting manufacturers, distributors, contractors, consultants, retailers, and buyers on a single platform.

Launched in 2025, Eyby enables manufacturers to digitize product catalogs and helps distributors expand their online reach. Buyers can efficiently discover, compare, and request quotations for building products through the platform. Even in private beta, it is facilitating approximately $5 million USD in monthly gross merchandise volume (GMV) through participating distributors.

The platform addresses challenges in the building materials supply chain, where product data is often fragmented and procurement processes are manual. Eyby has developed a building-product knowledge graph that standardizes technical specifications and product attributes across manufacturers, allowing for more efficient searching and comparison by buyers.

Eyby is primarily bootstrapped, with support from Kenyan manufacturer Metsec Cables, allowing for strategic independence and sustainable technology development. Instead of focusing on short-term transaction commissions, Eyby prioritizes ecosystem growth, with revenue models based on premium subscriptions, advertising, and value-added digital services.

The company's primary market is currently Kenya, with plans to expand progressively into other African markets and eventually globally. Eyby believes its combination of a product knowledge graph and a digital marketplace provides the necessary infrastructure to modernize how building products are discovered and sourced across Africa and beyond.