The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) has unveiled its fourth incubator and tech hub in Nairobi. The pan-African entrepreneurial training program, seed fund and tech incubator new hub will also serve as its flagship East African space.
The Nairobi space will also host the new East African office of its parent brand, global leader in media intelligence and AI-Driven Outside Insight, Meltwater, who is also expanding into the region. The incubator will provide the same on-the-ground support, access to resources and global MEST network enjoyed by portfolio companies in Accra, Lagos and Cape Town.
“MEST is thrilled to officially establish our presence in East Africa with the launch of our Nairobi incubator,” MEST Managing Director Aaron Fu said. “A truly Pan-African tech hub, we now have a presence across all corners of Sub-Saharan Africa: West, South and now East. I personally look forward to engaging even more deeply with the incredibly vibrant tech and startup community thriving in Nairobi, which I’m happy to call home.’
Following the announcement of a $700k investment in 7 startups from the 2018 MEST cohort, one of the first companies to move into the Incubator in Nairobi will be the recent investment Sharehouse. Sharehouse is an ‘Airbnb for warehouses and existing portfolio company Nestmetric, a platform that makes business insights and predictions through Machine Learning accessible to all types of businesses.
Since its inception in 2008, the Meltwater Foundation has invested $20 million into the program, supporting aspiring African entrepreneurs through the training program and incubator. Now in its 10th year, over 330 individual entrepreneurs have graduated from the training program and over 55 tech companies have been launched via seed funding and mentorship from MEST. Three companies — Claimsync, AdGeek and Saya — have been acquired.
MEST entrepreneurs have developed solutions addressing local and global markets, received outside follow-on funding from global investors, and have gained admittance to top accelerator programs such as Y-Combinator , 500 Startups and TechStars.
MEST already has hubs in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, and the Nairobi launch comes less than a year after the opening of MEST Africa’s Lagos and Cape Town hubs in November 2017. The Nairobi incubator will be located at the Nairobi Garage on the 7th floor of Pinetree Plaza, on Kaburu Drive (Ngong Road).
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