Explore the centers
Welcome to the 2026/27 Master’s research phase with NairoBits. This cycle brings together four Kenyan social enterprises. YouthPrinua and Amani Kibera return from last year, giving this year’s students a foundation of completed research to build on. NESTARA Limited and Agsol join for the first time, each bringing a defined commercial question. Your research will help these enterprises test demand, sharpen their business models, and grow their measurable impact in the communities they serve.
Agsol Kenya
About Agsol
Agsol designs, manufactures, and distributes solar-powered agri-processing machines for rural farming communities. Its solar mills save customers time and money, produce healthier food, improve energy access and labour efficiency, and create new income opportunities, particularly for women. Agsol is on a mission to replace the diesel mills that half a billion people in Africa depend on today to process their staple foods. The company operates across multiple markets and earns all of its revenue from product sales.
Suggested project & deliverables
Agsol’s project focuses on making customer identification and de-risking for consumer finance efficient and repeatable. More than 95% of Kenyan customers want a financing option to buy a mill, but no proven de-risking mechanism exists for consumer finance on productive-use appliances such as solar mills. Assessing creditworthiness is currently slow and inconsistent, which limits how many customers can be financed and how fast the model can scale. Agsol seeks support from the S-Bize program to identify the customer risk metrics that predict repayment and to develop a de-risking methodology built around them. The methodology is designed for Agsol’s distribution partners to apply directly, extending its reach without adding to Agsol’s operational load, and builds on the company’s previous customer financing pilots and market research.
NESTARA LTD
About NESTARA LTD
NESTARA Limited is a Kenyan social enterprise, founded two years ago, that is formalizing domestic work so the people who hold up the country’s homes are recognized as professionals. Kenya has more than two million domestic workers, and with no state-sponsored childcare or eldercare, working families depend on them. NESTARA was built to fix a market failure of trust. Families are willing to pay well but need confidence in a worker’s skills and background, while experienced workers have no formal way to prove their record. NESTARA identifies domestic workers with strong experience and verifiable references, trains them through NICHE, its care and hospitality academy, and places them in contracted roles paid above minimum wage. The company earns 56% of its revenue from placement fees charged to families and 42% from training fees.
suggested project & deliverables
NESTARA’s project is centered on scaling through a business-to-business model that grows the employer-sponsored training pipeline at NICHE. Every domestic job placement is on a written contract, retention is strong, and training has grown from about 10% to 42% of revenue in a year. Kenya’s minimum wage for domestic workers is 18,000 shillings, while the average worker earns 10,000 to 12,000, which shows that many families cannot meet the standard or need to see its value. Employers carry part of this cost already: when a domestic worker falls ill or leaves, the parent misses work. NESTARA seeks support from the S-Bize program to research corporate demand for sponsored training cohorts and family benefits that reduce lost working hours, and to design how the offer is packaged, priced, and sold to companies.
YouthPrinua
About YouthPrinua
YouthPrinua is a youth-led community-based organization operating in the Ruaraka and Mathare informal settlements of Nairobi, where waste is dumped openly and blocks the river that runs through the community. The result is flooding, displacement, demolitions, and disease. YouthPrinua addresses this through waste management: it collects waste from households, receives waste that residents bring in, then sorts, bales, and transports it to recycling markets. The organization earns income from grants, the sale of plastic and paper waste, its Recycle for Water initiative, which provides clean water to the community at an affordable price, and a car wash enterprise. YouthPrinua joins the 2026/27 cohort as a returning organization, building on the research completed with the 2025/26 LSE team.
suggested project & deliverables
In the 2025/26 cycle, LSE students helped YouthPrinua shape its business model and customer segments, and connect its social and environmental impact to financial sustainability. Since then, the organization has grown its waste recovery from 500 kilograms to two tonnes a week, begun working with waste pickers on the ground, and mapped its most loyal customers. It has formalized its operations with a structured team and clear roles, and added a shredding machine to its baling machine so that waste can be processed and sorted by color for higher value. This year, YouthPrinua seeks support from the S-Bize program to strengthen its business model for scale, with a target of recovering at least 10 tonnes of waste a week. This requires rethinking its revenue model, customer segments, reach across its geographic area, logistics, and team. Success in nine months means a clear, tested, and measurable business model for at least one of its key circular economy solutions, with defined customer segments, pricing models, revenue projections, and a practical growth strategy.
Amani Kibera
About Amani Kibera
Amani Kibera is a youth-led community-based organization founded in Kibera in 2007 to promote peace and social cohesion. Its work rests on three pillars: health, education, and climate. Its programs include youth leadership and mentorship, and the Wezesha Girls Empowerment Program, which runs a fashion design school for young women at risk, including young mothers and survivors of gender-based violence. Students complete six months of fashion design training. Because many of these women are mothers who need an income, Amani Kibera built a social enterprise where they continue learning, produce items for sale, and earn a living from their skills. Amani Kibera joins the 2026/27 cohort as a returning organization, building on the research completed with the 2025/26 LSE team.
suggested project & deliverables
In the 2025/26 cycle, LSE students helped Amani Kibera develop a theory of change for its social enterprise, mapping inputs, outputs, and long-term impact, and build a business model canvas covering customer segments, products, and market access. Since then, the enterprise has begun producing tote bags, wash bags, and sanitary pads. Its income currently comes from exhibitions and from visitors who buy products when they come to the organization. This year, Amani Kibera seeks support from the S-Bize program to put the business model canvas into action: identifying its customers clearly and building a route into the global market. Reaching international buyers would expand production, raise the income the young women earn, and sustain both the enterprise and the wider organization over the long term.