In 1999 Rob Van Hoek who was selling IBM computers decided to form a partnership with Mike Macharia, also a young entrepreneur selling Compaq computers. This led to the formation of Seven Seas Technologies in 2000, a firm that saw the two venture into IT services. Then, Mike Macharia was just 26 years old when he became CEO, and the firm success was pegged on the ambition of the two.
Getting financial support then for a firm with no assets or no income statements was almost an impossibility. Macharia says that the first bank to support the young firm was the Banque Commerciale du Rwanda (Commercial Bank of Rwanda). Rwanda, alongside Kenya, was also the first market for the upcoming software services firm.
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