A necklace from Soko. Image courtesy Soko.

A necklace from Soko. Image courtesy Soko.

Soko: From Kenya to S.F. Through M-commerce

This is another side of m-commerce

Soko, a San Francisco, headquartered company, will ship jewelry from rural and urban, slum artisans in Kenya, and place them in top retailers such as Anthropologie.

Gwendolyn Floyd, co-founder and president of Soko, said that her company is among the few able to compensate these artisans well, because Soko pays them through mobile money kiosks in Kenya, rather than bank accounts which are out of reach for many Kenyans living in rural areas or slum conditions.

“It’s amazing to connect geographies and economics that have never been connected before through mobile commerce,” Floyd said. “Companies like Anthropogie are buying from artisans who have never worked at the international level. It is really exciting that we can facilitate it.”

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Leather and brass applique necklace from Soko. Image courtesy Soko.