Bernard Banta

Experience

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  Nairuby

  Oct 2010 - Nov 2022

  Chairman and Co-founder

  Nairuby is a chapter in Nairobi under the African Ruby Community an organization that was started in 2010. The community currently has over reach of over 5,000 members spread across East Africa, made of developers (Engineers), entrepreneurs, designers and freelancers. In terms of development and demonstrations the community focuses on ruby technologies and frameworks, which are all open source and widely used by startups to prototype and carry out proof of concept with a go to market strategy.The community hosts weekly and monthly meetups in different cities in East Africa. The community brings you Ruby Conference every year with different themes to fill the gap that exist between school and industry and in return helps spur innovation and growth in contribution to global economy.Nairuby brings entrepreneurs, developers, Designers, open source contributors. Why? We believe in a holistic approach through, entrepreneurship “Solution approach” and open source we can solve so many problems. This in return empowers everyone who attends with technology “tool” and entrepreneurship “Methodology” to reach their fullest potential and inspire the rest of the world and their communities. Show less

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  Kopo Kopo Inc

  Jul 2011 - Oct 2015

  Software Engineer

  Kopo Kopo is a technology company headquartered in Seattle, United States that uses payment data to digitize and extend credit to SMEs in emerging markets. We are partnering with the leading m-money providers in Africa, Asia and South America - banks, mobile carriers, and third-party providers - to expand their reach into the long-tail of SMEs.

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  Appfolks, Inc.

  Dec 2011 - Jun 2012

  Software Engineer Intern

  Appfolks, Inc. is a software company in Houston, Texas, United States. I worked on Gainify as a software engineering intern. Gainify is an app for e-commerce store owners who want to maximize gains by introducing group buying deals, helping create, monitor and analyze promotions. Gainify was integrated to Shopify and won several awards including Techcrunch Disrupt SF'11 Hackathon Winner.Responsibilities:- Front-end designing and developing- Back-end developing- Presenting ideas for system improvements- Maintaining the platform- Building recommendation system using data from social media Show less

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  Epuka

  Apr 2012 - Aug 2013

  Developer and Co-founder

  Epuka is an OpenSource (http://github.com/Banta/epuka) disease reporting systems. Anyone can use this system see the places that are affected, get advise on how to prepare before travelling to that place. It is also useful to community health wokers and anyone in the medical field. Only people in the medical field are allowed to report diseases and view delailed information about the diseases. More info http://epuka.herokuapp.com

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  Habari

  Jun 2012 - Aug 2013

  Co-Founder

  Habari is a multi-platform mobile application that aggregates news in East Africa. This application has won several awards and competitions across Africa. In ITunes, it has been featured in ‘what’s hot’ section several times. Play Store link: https://chl.li/habariapp

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  Software Developer's Journal

  Jul 2012 - Aug 2015

  Contributing Author

  Software Developer's Journal http://sdjournal.org/ is an online magazine. I write articles about different technologies revolving around Ruby.

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  Startup Supply, Co

  Dec 2012 - May 2013

  Senior Student Developer and Facilitator

  This company is focused on nurturing and mentoring student developers in college.Responsibilities:- Mentor student developers both in Kenya, United States and Philippines- Connecting students with mentors- Oversee and project manage all the undertaken projects

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  Banta Technologies

  Oct 2015 - Feb 2017

  CEO and Co-founder

  As a founder & Group CEO of Banta Technologies https://chl.li/bantatech, I handle Strategy, Talent Management and Business development for the organization.

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  Finplus Group

  Feb 2017 - now

  CTO and Co-Founder

  Finplus is a technology company that helps you provide innovative fintech & ecommerce products in emerging markets. Offer great digital experiences & automate critical business processes.

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  African Ruby Community

  Nov 2021 - now

  Chairman and Co-founder

  African Ruby Community, ARC is an organization that was started in 2010. The community currently has over reach of over 5,000 members spread across East Africa, made of developers (Engineers), entrepreneurs, designers and freelancers. In terms of development and demonstrations the community focuses on ruby technologies and frameworks, which are all open source and widely used by startups to prototype and carry out proof of concept with a go to market strategy.The community hosts weekly and monthly meetups in different cities in East Africa. The community brings you Ruby Conference every year with different themes to fill the gap that exist between school and industry and in return helps spur innovation and growth in contribution to global economy.ARC brings entrepreneurs, developers, Designers, open source contributors. Why? We believe in a holistic approach through, entrepreneurship “Solution approach” and open source we can solve so many problems. This in return empowers everyone who attends with technology “tool” and entrepreneurship “Methodology” to reach their fullest potential and inspire the rest of the world and their communities. Show less