NaiLab Background/History

The mission of Nailab is to stimulate the establishment and growth of technology-based start-up companies and other compatible businesses.

NaiLab Vision
Nailab aspires to have a lasting impact on the Kenyan ICT industry and Kenyan society as a whole by developing business relevant skills, contributing to job creation and enhancing economic health/wealth.

NaiLab’s Focus is on facilitating entrepreneurial success
With its ambition to create the next generation of successful ICT companies of Kenya, the Nailab will focus on the Key Success Factors for aspiring entrepreneurs.

These are:

I.     A secure, inspirational and professional working space to develop and grow a skill, product or idea

II.     Development of solid entrepreneurial and business skills to turn a skill, product or idea into a viable and sustainable business enterprise

III.     Constructive criticism, mentoring & coaching to align skills, products or ideas with market needs

IV.     Access to a the eco-system of Kenya’s ICT industry, providing access to clients, education (e.g. universities), industry experts, operational partnerships and investors to secure start-up and operational capital

V.     Deliberate but relentless focus on business results, during the incubation and especially after graduation

NaiLab History
NaiLab is founded by Sam Gichuru, Bart Lacroix, Anna Chojnacka and Tonee Ndungu. The idea was to create a business incubator in Nairobi whose chief role was to stimulate innovation, promote the thinking through of fresh new ideas, provide a space for these ideas to be worked on with little financial strain as possible and provide the appropriate guidance necessary to do so.Establishing such an incubator was not without its challenges among which was securing its own funding, initially the NaiLab secured EUR 50,000 worth of Angel funding, it then took another year to raise the funds required to actually run the incubator space. The Crowdfunding platform 1%CLUB offered to fund the setup and running costs of the Nailab for the first 2 to 3 years.Tonee Ndungu left the NaiLab to setup his own business. Sam Gichuru became the NaiLab Director. The challenge was to setup a business incubator that is different from other pre-existing spaces, be an addition to the existing value chain, define its role in the tech business scene and open its doors to strategic partnership for execution.

On 4th August, 2011 Nailab Incubator started operations and selected its first batch of incubatees, five of the companies incubated at Nailab in the first year graduated with over Kshs. 3 million each in capital, customers, coverage on local and international media and strong scalable business teams. We are now working on the second graduation and selection round.