MEST Africa officially launched its flagship East African space in Nairobi, Kenya after the launch of MEST Lagos and MEST Cape Town Incubators.
A shared space with the Meltwater Nairobi Office in Nairobi Garage, the MEST Incubator Nairobi is home to Portfolio Companies Sharehouse and Nestmetric.
The new Nairobi Incubator will provide the same on-the-ground support and access to resources and global MEST network enjoyed by portfolio companies in Accra, Lagos, and Cape Town.
The official launch event for MEST Nairobi featured presentations by MEST Portfolio Companies Nestmetric, Sharehouse, Bidiibuild, Joluud, InvestXD, meQasa, and BuildPals as well as a speech by Meltwater’s Philippa Dodds on our partnership with Future Females.
Welcoming key ecosystem members including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, MEST partners, and more, the night opened with an address by MEST Managing Director Aaron Fu.
With more and more East Africans joining the MEST Training Program, we are incredibly excited to now have an official location! Here’s a closer look at our first two Nairobi residents.
Nestmetric uses AI to help SaaS companies convert and retain customers
Founded in 2017 by MEST alumni John Muchiri, Duncan Murithi, and Gerald Muriuki, Nestmetric is a customer retention platform for SaaS companies that utilizes the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to predict user behavior and send real time alerts to help convert and retain customers.
Currently, SaaS companies are losing up to 35% of revenue due to churn. Nestmetric aims to put an end to that with their simple-to-use tool.
CEO John Muchiri explained, “Businesses of the future will require AI to help them build or sustain a competitive advantage. We’re ready and eager to help companies meet that challenge by transforming African enterprises with AI.”
Nestmetric may just be one year old, but the market they are tackling has immense potential. According to the MIT Sloan Review, 84% of businesses believe that AI will help them build or sustain a competitive advantage.
However, currently only about one in five companies has incorporated AI. Lack of incorporation has a lot to do with lack of resources and talent to effectively implement AI at scale, which is where Nestmetric comes in – making AI tools for customer retention widely accessible.
Sharehouse makes finding and renting warehouse storage space easier than ever
Part of the 2018 MEST graduating class, Sharehouse was founded by Flavian Kibet Chessesio, Shadrack Mwangi, and George Koomson.
Having discovered that many small business struggle to find storage spaces with favorable leasing terms, as available spaces are too big and leased for much longer periods than they need, these three founders developed Sharehouse.
This simple solution is a marketplace where businesses are able to rent smaller space on demand, for shorter periods. Warehouse operators are also able to rent out unused space, building a symbiotic relationship between these operators and small business owners.
Sharehouse CEO Flavian Kibet Chessesio believes that they have the potential to revolutionize the storage market in Kenya. He stated,
“At Sharehouse, we see an opportunity to create a symbiotic relationship between these two types of businesses, allowing one to unlock the capital they would have had to invest in storage and focus on other activities that will grow their businesses, and the other to recover capital invested in space they are not using and increase their profit by creating an alternative revenue stream.“
MEST is thrilled to officially join the Nairobi ecosystem, and we look forward to hosting many events for potential EITs as well as running workshops for the entrepreneurial community.
If you’re interested in learning more about Sharehouse and Nestmetric, be sure to stop by MEST Nairobi! Interested in learning more about MEST Nairobi? Send an email to nairobi@meltwater.org
