When Creative Capital Finally Pays Off

In 2019, Gathoni Kimuyu and her colleagues at Story Zetu were facing a problem familiar to many creative businesses in Kenya. They had the ideas and an audience. They had already shown that Kenyans were willing to pay to watch their work. But what they did not have was enough capital to match their ambitions.

The company was preparing to stage Tom Mboya, a theatrical production inspired by the Rusinga Festival. The proposed production budget was about Sh4.8 million when the festival could contribute only Sh50,000, leaving the team to find money for rehearsal space, cast and crew pay, pre-production and marketing on their own.

The search for seed money saw it seek intervention from HEVA Fund and the impact, as Ms Kimuyu says, went beyond the money.

She recalls, “It felt like a load off our shoulders.”

Through HEVA’s support for creative enterprises, including the Sanara Programme, Story Zetu accessed a facility that combined a grant with a zero-rated financing component.

It was a turning point for a company that had started out with little more than a determination to tell Kenyan stories differently.

From rejected television show to theatre, Story Zetu journey began in 2017, when Ms Kimuyu, then working at a television station, was approached by two men (Abu and Ngatia), who were working in advertising. They had written a television show and wanted her to produce it.

The team completed the production and spent about four months pitching it to television stations — with discouraging results. Broadcasters questioned whether the stories were suitable for the “common mwananchi”, with some suggesting that audiences would not understand or watch them.

Instead of abandoning the project, the team took it to the theatre. The first performance at the Kenya National Theatre sold out in less than two weeks.

That experience convinced the team there was an appetite for Kenyan stories, provided audiences were given the chance to experience them. For Kimuyu, it also marked the beginning of a career in theatre production.

In 2018, she produced Brazen, a show centred on women in Kenyan history whose stories had often been overlooked. It was a success, but it also exposed the financial realities of producing theatre.

The business behind the curtain
Theatre, Ms Kimuyu says, is not simply about actors walking onto a stage. There are months of rehearsals, production design, costumes, technical crews, food, transport, marketing, legal services and administrative costs to account for.

At one point, she was using her own money to finance production costs, hoping ticket sales would eventually reimburse her. The approach might work for a small production, but becomes much harder when it is time to move into larger venues and stage more ambitious shows.

Instead of constantly worrying about the next production expense, the team could invest in rehearsal space and pre-production, and think about how to reach larger audiences. It also enabled the firm to move from a 350-seat auditorium to a venue with capacity for about 640 people.

Bigger venue came with greater risk, though. The financial calculations only made sense if the company could fill the seats. It did. And Story Zetu went on to stage Tom Mboya 22 times, with the performances selling out, according to Ms Kimuyu.

The production employed about 40 crew members, including interns, caterers, first-aid personnel and a counsellor or therapist. When actors were included, the number rose to about 51 people. The company also brought in interns from institutions such as Kenyatta University, KCA University and the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication.

This was evidence that investment in one creative business can have a multiplier effect, creating work for people who may never appear on stage but whose skills are essential to making a production happen.

Particular area of concern was how to professionalise operations. With the facility, the company was able to hire an administrator, obtain legal support and strengthen functions around contracts and marketing. The support, therefore, did not simply finance a theatre show. It helped build a business.

“This money didn’t just get us better as artists. It also created a space for us to hire people who are going to support the process.”

Changing what artists are paid
Perhaps one of the most significant effects was on remuneration. When Ms Kimuyu began producing theatre, she researched the rates being paid to actors and crew members. She found them discouraging.

The problem, she argues, is partly rooted in the way society has traditionally viewed creative careers. For decades, careers such as medicine, teaching and engineering were considered “real” professions, while artists were often asked what else they did. That perception has also influenced access to finance.

According to Ms Kimuyu, banks have traditionally been reluctant to lend to artists because creative businesses do not always fit conventional lending models.

HEVA’s willingness to finance the company therefore represented more than access to cash — it was also a vote of confidence in the creative business model.

As Story Zetu’s finances improved, it was able to increase what it paid its practitioners. By 2025 and 2026, Ms Kimuyu says, the company was paying about three times what it had paid in 2019.

“By last year and this year actually, we paid triple what we were paying in 2019.”

For an industry where low and inconsistent pay remains a concern, that represents an important shift.

Founding team

Several members of the founding team had backgrounds in advertising and media, and understood that a good production could still fail commercially if audiences did not know about it.

Story Zetu therefore adopted a rule that no production would proceed without a marketing strategy. Ms Kimuyu estimates that marketing should account for roughly 10 percent of a production budget, and the financing facility gave the company the resources to execute that strategy, which entailed investing in digital content and media buying rather than simply designing posters.

The approach was different enough that other theatre producers began approaching Story Zetu to understand how it was attracting audiences, proof that the company’s influence was extending beyond its own productions.

Then came Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic brought live entertainment to a standstill. Story Zetu was developing Beats, a major production involving several writers. An office had been rented. Writers were working. Production plans were taking shape. Then Kenya reported its first Covid-19 case, and the production was postponed.

Suddenly, the company had no immediate revenue but still had financial obligations — and had already sold tickets.

Rather than simply cancel them, the company gave customers the option of receiving refunds or retaining their tickets until the show could eventually be staged. Only about 20 percent requested refunds; the majority chose to wait.

Looking back, Ms Kimuyu believes the greatest impact of HEVA’s support was not any single production. It was the confidence it created. The team began thinking beyond survival and started planning for growth.

After staging productions in smaller venues, Story Zetu moved into spaces for 640 people and has since begun thinking about venues with capacity for 800. The company’s individual directors have also expanded their creative careers (some producing their own shows), others establishing independent ventures.
That is perhaps the clearest measure of the investment’s impact: the money did not remain within one production. It helped create a pipeline of businesses, jobs and creative careers.

Creative businesses do not necessarily grow the way conventional enterprises do. Their assets may be intellectual rather than physical. Their revenues can be seasonal. Their biggest investments may come months before audiences buy a ticket — and traditional lending can struggle to capture that potential.

This is also proof that when capital is combined with patience and an understanding of the sector, the results can extend well beyond the original borrower.

A bigger stage for the creative economy
Kenya’s creative economy is increasingly producing businesses that can employ people, generate income and build intellectual property.

But talent alone does not create sustainable enterprises. Artists need access to capital, markets, business skills and institutions willing to take calculated risks on their ideas.

Ms Kimuyu’s message to other creatives is: “You don’t have to start small.”

For Story Zetu, the decision to think bigger began with a few rejected television scripts. The next chapter was written on stage — with the help of a financier willing to bet on the business behind the art.