Kenyan startup Twiva, which is transforming the opportunity landscape for African creators by replacing sporadic brand deals with structured demand, performance-based earnings, and integrated financial services.Disrupt Africa reported in October 2022 on the launch of the Jobtech Alliance, an ecosystem-building initiative around inclusive jobtech in Africa steered by Mercy Corps and BFA Global, which aims to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs to build platforms that deliver quality livelihoods, are inclusive, and enable users to engage in decent work.It has run several cohorts, but is now also making direct investments in relevant ventures, most recently in Nigeria’s Bumpa and Kenya’s Flowcart, both e-commerce ventures.Jobtech Alliance has now backed Kenyan startup Twiva, which is tackling the “dual crisis” of youth unemployment and MSME barriers with its influencer-powered social commerce platform, which enables MSMEs to market and sell their products and services through online gig workers. The investment in Twiva, which took part in the fourth edition of the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator last year, is undisclosed, but Jobtech Alliance has already been working with the startup for more than six months, providing bespoke venture support and engaging with creators on the platform.“In the process, we confirmed our hypothesis that building the infrastructure to generate consistent, repeat brand demand is the (rewarding!) challenge that platforms need to tackle,” Jobtech Alliance said.Explaining the rationale behind the investment, Jobtech said it was clear that creator audiences are growing in Africa, with platforms multiplying and monetisation tools expanding. “But reliable incomes remain an issue. Even among top-tier creators, income stability is far from guaranteed. Earnings frequently fluctuate due to seasonal brand campaigns, platform algorithm changes, and shifts in audience engagement,” it said.In addressing this, Twiva stood out to the organisation for two main reasons.“It deeply understands demand, and it deeply understands creators. The platform demonstrates that when you structure demand, embed payments, build skills, and treat creators as distributed businesses, you can build repeat revenue and customers for brands and more durable income for creators,” Jobtech Alliance said.The majority of influencer marketplaces in Africa tend to have a singular focus on discovery. They aggregate talent and hope that demand follows. Twiva does the opposite by structuring demand first. The platform connects brands and SMEs with micro and nano influencers, embedding campaign management, performance tracking, reporting, and structured payments directly into the workflow. Campaigns are increasingly tied to measurable outcomes, which means clicks, conversions, and sales, rather than just awareness. That is because, above all, brands care about ROI, accountability, and repeatable performance.”But Twiva’s strength is not just brand optimisation at the expense of creators, its demand structuring is in service of more predictable creator income – “the holy grail for many women users”. “Women micro and nano creators cannot access brand work without digital infrastructure. They are not waiting for sporadic deals as they are excluded from agency rosters and formal campaign pipelines. Twiva lowers that barrier by embedding them into structured campaigns where income is tied to performance within clear workflows, with transparent metrics and an embedded payment system. Earnings for their creators become less arbitrary and more predictable,” Jobtech Alliance said.