Virtual work station firm carves out its niche in Africa

Mr Ian Kabiru. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By JAMES KARIUKI

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Summary

• Ian Kabiru started the enterprise as a cyber cafe but competition drove him to look for alternative opportunities.

Ian Kabiru invested Sh12 million to open a premium cyber cafe 14 years ago seeking to fend off stiff competition from rivals in Nairobi.

He closed down his two normal small cyber café businesses he had been running for three years on Loita and Kaunda streets, as incomes had been dwindling.

Such businesses had proliferated and mobile companies were also biting bigger pie with on-the-go internet services.

“In my first year in business, I incurred losses but by the second year, a corporate client leased the entire wing prompting me to hire a second wing to service my small clients. I realised many small “hustlers” needed a virtual office where they could spend the entire day online,” he recalls.

Mr Kabiru, an economics and marketing graduate from University of Wales in the United Kingdom, initially worked with Unilever as a brand and marketing manager before partnering with some local investors to launch a mobile firm, Popote Wireless.

“It helped me understand the need for internet services and I invested my earnings in setting up cyber cafes. But as they became popular more people invested in cyber cafes and earnings dropped. I had to close shop,” he recalls.

READ: New surfing options spell doom for cyber cafés

He set up a virtual workstation at Luther Plaza that he named Horizons Offices in 2004.

“This was a new office’ product that saw me invest in technological equipment to enhance internet speeds,” says Mr Kabiru.

As demand grew, he got Sh60 million funding from a UK based venture capital firm and he opened a new branch at 14 Riverside that attracted more corporate firms.

“Kenya is an East African hub for business and many companies are keen to set up shop here and that gave us a niche market for our product,” he adds.

Mr Kabiru’s business has grown rapidly and is now earning Sh200 million on average annually. The firm has offices in Accra, Ghana, which he established three years ago and Nigeria’s Lagos where he set base five years ago.

“We are looking forward to new growth since multi-nationals are keen on using Nairobi as their Africa hub,” he says.

He discloses that 2017 was a bad period for their business due to the prolonged electioneering period. However, with normalcy returning things are looking up again.