When having in-depth discussions about the supercar scene in Kenya, car enthusiast Earl Karanja is always among the top names mentioned.
The veteran supercar dealer has been in the trading space for close to a decade, starting his venture in 2015. However, Earl’s passion and keen professional eye for cars developed back in high school.
Earl Karanja recalls launching a car blogspot back in 2007 when he was just in Form 3 at Nakuru High School. Around the same time, Facebook and Twitter came up and Earl was quick to open his first social media accounts.
“Forums were dying and social media was coming up…I opened my first Twitter account and was approached by a German Magazine GT Spirit,” he said.
With his wide registry of supercars, Earl was the perfect fit for blogging for the international magazine. This was his first blogging job in 2009.
During that period, some of the top cars in the world included the Nissan Skyline GTR and the Pagani Zonda. In 2012, he was too deep in the scene and had even considered relocating abroad and interacting with them.
However, during the same period, the Kenyan car scene was emerging with Kiamburing being one of the first events. Earl was contracted by the event organizers to cover these events.
In 2015, he decided to launch his broker page for supercars, limited editions built slots & off-market vehicles. Today, his Instagram page is one of the world’s top sources for online supercars and hypercars brokerage on the internet, with over 250,000 followers.
“At first, Instagram is new, you have so many cars you’re posting but I remember the most famous statement was ‘No one is gonna buy a Ferrari through Instagram’. I just kept going,” he shared.
For a whole year, Earl did not make any sales from his supercar page until one day in 2016 when he advertised a Mercedes CLK GTR, that was selling for 3 million euros.
He got a client lead whom he connected to the vehicle owner and the transaction was successful.
Earl’s first commission came from selling a Porsche 911 GT3 RS 991.1. He made around Sh. 415,000 (2500 CHF). Since then, he hasn’t looked back and has been growing the business.
Second hand Honda Fit now at Sh. 1.6mn, Premio Sh. 2.7mn, Harrier Sh. 4mn
Earl’s brokerage page shows that he has sold over 40 extremely luxurious machines and their parts.
He explained that his journey to success has been quite a ride, starting from the days when he wrote blogs using limited internet access, to now being known worldwide as a top supercar dealer.
The trader now drives a Subaru STI VAB 2015 Japan Spec model and a Suzuki Jimny.