Michael Macharia is the founder of Seven Seas Technologies, founder and Group Chief Visionary officer at Ponea. Under his leadership, the company continues to expand into Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda. The company also has additional joint ventures and investments in tech companies in Portugal.
The Egerton University alumnus has bagged several high-profile contracts since the inception of SST, which he owns 60 per cent of. The company has grown to have over 200 employees.
Macharia was recently awarded Ksh1.6 billion in a case against the government after the state was found to have wrongfully terminated a healthcare contract awarded to his company Seven Seas Technologies (SST). Here is his story as narrated by WoK.
Background
The businessman holds a degree from Egerton University according to his LinkedIn profile.
During an interview with Business Daily, he revealed that his mother was a civil servant, and his father a high-ranking manager in a multinational, and eventually in some of the small companies. We were a middle-class family. But I think what drew me to be an entrepreneur was the sort of culture my parents had.
“We had a farm, 20 or 30 acres, and every weekend and holiday we’d be there working and there would be some commercial return for us as individuals. So I began looking at things from that point of view,” he recounted.
He developed an entrepreneurial intent from a young age.
Seven Seas Technology
Seven Seas Technologies Limited (hereafter “SST” or “the Company”) is a leading provider of integrated business and technology solutions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); serving institutional clients in the healthcare, finance, security, and social services industries.
Michael Macharia & Rob Van Hoek founded SST in 1999. They were joined by the Late James Gachui who assumed the role of founding Chairman in 2003. Since its inception, SST has grown to be a leading provider of enterprise-scale technology solutions servicing large public and private institutions in the region.
The company provides business applications, service management, ICT infrastructure & software, business corporate training, and project management services to its clients that primarily operate in the healthcare, telecom, banking and social services sectors.
“We know that value goes beyond one single endeavour, so we deliver quality to customers across the ecosystem, through a combination of process excellence, quality frameworks and service delivery innovation. Our core motivation is defining service excellence in technology-driven business solutions; our passion is providing best-in-class service delivery; our DNA is to be the best,” the company states on its website.
Over the years, SST has emerged as a market leader in the provisioning of turnkey healthcare infrastructure projects in the region. With healthcare as its primary focus, SST provides public and private hospitals with medical equipment supplies, turnkey healthcare program implementation (PMO), hospital information systems (HIS), healthcare information technology (HCIT), equipment installation and after-sales services.
Ksh1.6 billion award
On August 22, 2022, Macharia was awarded Kh1.6 billion after the government terminated a contract with his company Seven Seas Technologies. The firm was supposed to wire 98 State hospitals in a deal reached in October 2017.
Retired Chief Justice and now arbitrator Aaron Ringera found the State guilty of terminating the Ksh4.7 billion contract that demanded SevenSeas Technologies Limited provide the technology component of the Managed Equipment Service (MES) plan.
Part of the deal was to provide teleradiology, which allows doctors in top hospitals to read X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and other medical images for the treatment of patients in remote facilities.
SST received a termination letter from the Ministry of Health dated November 18, 2019, indicating that the contract contained several clauses, including the requirement for a government Letter of Support that was not in the original tender documents.
The ministry said the Kenya tech firm, valued at an estimated Ksh3.2 billion in 2016, lacked the financial muscle to shepherd the deal despite the company having sunk more than $11.11 million (Ksh1.32 billion).
