iHub — Nairobi's Pioneering Tech Innovation Hub

iHub was founded in March 2010 in Nairobi by Erik Hersman, Juliana Rotich and David Kobia, with launch funding from the Omidyar Network and Hivos and early operational ties to the open-source crisis-mapping project Ushahidi. It opened as an open co-working and community space for Kenyan software developers, designers and entrepreneurs and became closely associated with the rise of Nairobi's "Silicon Savannah" tech scene, hosting facilities such as the iHub UX Lab — described as the first open user-experience lab in Sub-Saharan Africa — and mLab East Africa.
A 2012 iHub-commissioned member survey found high satisfaction with the space's networking and collaboration value, and independent academic research — including a peer-reviewed study in Technological Forecasting and Social Change (Littlewood & Kiyumbu, 2017) examining Kenyan "hub" organisations, and a University of Washington TASCHA assessment of iHub's impact — has since used iHub as a reference case for how co-working and innovation spaces support early-stage entrepreneurs. Secondary reporting credits more than 450 startups with roots at iHub and over $40 million raised by portfolio companies, though these cumulative figures are self- or third-party-reported rather than independently audited.
In September 2019, iHub was acquired by Lagos-based Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) for an undisclosed amount, becoming part of a pan-African network now spanning Nairobi, Lagos, Windhoek and Kigali; it continues to operate under the iHub name as of 2026. This ownership change and shift in strategic direction should be weighed against any assessment of the original, independent 2010–2019 Nairobi model.

Read the full analysis: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/121940/