Innovation Spaces - Republic of Kenya

In part due to its pro-Innovation Policy and Regulatory Environment, Kenya has experienced significant growth in Innovation Spaces (private, community driven and hosted by education and research institutions) since 2009 including FabLab (2009) and Computing for Development Lab (C4DLab, 2013) at University of Nairobi; iHub (March 2010); @iLabAfrica (January 2011) and @iBizAfrica at University of Strathmore; m:lab East Africa (June 2011, activities now within iHub Chandaria BIIC (July 2011) at Kenyatta University; NaiLab (August 2011); 88mph /Nairobi Startup Garage (August 2011), GearBox , Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Center for Business Innovation - JKUAT-CBI; Regional Centre for Enterprise Development - IUPS and Enterprise Kenya (2015) A small but notable actor is Pawa254 , a collaborative space focused on dynamic creative industry fields. Lakehub is based in Kisumu, Western Kenya. These Innovation Spaces provide a mix of Pre-Incubation (iHub; @iLabAfrica; @iBizAfrica; Chandaria BIIC, Lakehub), Incubation (FabLab; C4DLab; NaiLab; GearBox; JKUAT-CBI; Regional Centre for Enterprise Development - IUPS; KIRDI ) and Acceleration services (88mph/Nairobi Startup Garage; Enterprise Kenya, Pangea Accelerator) (Cunningham et al 2014). Some of these are profiled below.

University of Nairobi has hosted FabLab for five years (focused primarily on rapid/3D prototyping) as part the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science and Technology Park, and the C4DLab since 2013 as part of the School of Computing and Informatics. Since March 2014, C3DLab is incubating 8 startups and exploring virtual incubation.

Hosted by the IT Faculty, Strathmore University, @iLabAfrica was established in January 2011 as a Centre of Excellence in ICT Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Incubation, and Policy Research for Africa. It expanded onto a second floor of dedicated space in June 2014. @iLabAfrica has successfully built industry research partnerships and launched a Master's programme (MSc. MTI) in Mobile Telecommunications and Innovation. @iBizAfrica was set up in January 2012 as an Incubation Programme.

Kenyatta University (KU) launched the Chandaria BIIC in July 2011. BIIC aims to support up to 100 innovators per year (including 30% non-KU students), blending research with entrepreneurship training. It aims to blend applied research with innovation and establishment of start-ups as well as predispose Kenyatta University students and Kenyans in general towards being job creators rather than job seekers. Their strategy is to sensitize students and the population at large to the importance of job creation. 40 ideas had been nurtured by February 2013. A new building inside the KU Campus has been completed. Partners include Chadaria Foundation, NACOSTI, Youth Enterprise Development Fund and Orange Kenya and others.

Jomo Kenyata University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT is supporting "uptake of research results by industry" by implementing the Nairobi Industrial and Technology Park in partnership with Ministry of Industrialization .

iHub launched in March 2010 as a Tech pre-Incubation and Collaborative Working Space, has three types of membership: White (Virtual - limited physical access); Green (free shared space for up to twelve months for 150 - 200 individuals) and Red (paid dedicated space for 12 months) members registered. Regular community events are hosted to encourage sharing of experiences. Over 50 companies have been established since its launch. iHub activities include iHub Research (March 2011), m:lab (June 2011), Pivot25/Pivot East (mobile app competition), UX Lab and Supercomputing Cluster (2012).

m:lab East Africa was launched in June 2011 as a mobile technology incubation centre by a consortium (eMobilis, World Wide Web Foundation, School of Computing and Informatics - University of Nairobi, iHub), with $725,000 seed funding from InfoDev (www.infodev.org). Services include business incubation, training, research and application testing. Up to June 2014 [24] m:lab supported over 60 startups through its four-month Mobile Application Development and Entrepreneurship Programme and office space for up to 24 months to five past and five current incubatees and Savannah Fund. m:lab supporters include Nokia, Samsung, Microsoft and SEACOM. m:lab was an implementing partner in InfoDev two year East Africa Virtual Incubation pilot ($180,000 funding from UKAid) running in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The activities from m:lab were taken over by iHub after the project funding.

NaiLab is a Business Incubator supporting entrepreneurial teams with mobile/web space innovations. Launched in August 2011 with support from Accenture and 1% Club, it provides collaborative working space, Internet access and mentoring. NaiLab takes a 3% - 10% equity stake in return for incubation of three to twelve months. Nine start-ups have been incubated to date, with five more currently being incubated. NaiLab was awarded the $1.6 million Kenya ICT Incubation Program contract in January 2013 under which it was contracted to incubate 30 startups by 2016 and was an implementing partner in the InfoDev East Africa Virtual Incubation pilot.

88 mph rebranded its Kenyan accelerator as Nairobi Startup Garage in June 2014. Offering seed capital ($1.7 million invested in 19 startups) and accelerator programmes targeting mobile and web start-ups, 88mph was launched by Danish investors in August 2011. Start up Garage co-working space was launched in February 2012 by 88mph and Human IPO. To date 88mph / IPO48 has invested in 10 start-ups and started 5 companies. 88mph takes 15% - 35% equity stake for investment of up to $24,000. In August 2012, 88mph partnered with Google to provide extended support to local start-ups.

Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) is a national research institute established in 1979 under the Ministry of Trade and Industry and mandated to undertake multidisciplinary research and development in industrial and allied technologies. The KIRDI ICT Incubation program is focused on supporting an entrepreneurial culture to support the creation of enterprise start-ups; micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) and mentorship.

Enterprise Kenya is an initiative under the ICT Authority to develop a national accelerator which can provide mentorship, create ICT centres of excellence and establish an Equity fund to support ICT innovations. It was initiated in 2015 to contribute to the National ICT Masterplan 2017 and is yet to be formally commenced.

The Pangea Accelerator has just closed a call for the Kenya Shelter Tech Accelerator, which is a collaboration between Pangea, BDO and Habitat for Humanity. This is a six month program with tailored support and the opportunity to secure $50k of equity funding.

ygap is an Australian based not-for-profit focused on supporting impact entrepreneurs to implement local solutions to local problems. ygap Kenya supports startups by providing a one week live-in accelerator focused on strengthening business models and provide necessary tools to achieve viability. Supported start-ups can access grant of investment funding of AUD$10 - $50k. ygap also have a dedicated program for female led early stage startups - yher Africa.

IBM set up a ThinkLab in Nairobi to undertake basic and applied research focused on addressing African challenges. The Lab allows clients and partners from across Middle East and Africa region to gain hands-on experience of IBM's latest cognitive, cloud, big data analytics and mobile technologies Fitted with some of the most advanced interactive technologies, THINKLab provides IBM's Africa based researchers with a stimulating environment to demonstrate the latest solutions in keys areas such as education, healthcare, water management, public safety and financial inclusion. The facility also facilitates IBM's scientists' engagement with the community representatives - inviting them to be part of the research and development process.