BRCK: Delivering Internet To Africa
BRCK is a communications hardware company comprised of a team of software developers, engineers and technologists in Nairobi who build devices for connectivity that fit Africa.
The company started in 2013 utilizing their history of building tech in Africa including in Ushahidi, the iHub and Gearbox. BRCK is backed by $4.2 million from investors including Steve Case and TED.
BRCK so far has produced BRCK v1, Kio Kit, SupaBRCK and PicoBRCK. BRCK v1 delivered connectivity and USB charging for up to 20 devices. It started shipping in July 2014 and thousands of BRCK have been sold in 58 countries around the world.
The SupaBRCK is the evolution of the BRCK v1. It enhances the connection redundancy and physical reliability. It is ideal for enterprise usage for data intensive applications. SupaBRCK is a connected rugged micro server with a dual core Intel 64-Bit processor, up to 5TB of hard drive space and 10 hour on board battery all housed in an outdoor ready, weather resistant enclosure.
Kio Kit is a digital classroom in a box. It is made up of 40 Kio tablets, a SupaBRCK, wireless tablet technology and a hardened water resistant lockable case. The Kio Kit combines the connectivity and content capacity of the SupaBRCK to offer a wide range of educational content for use in classrooms.
The PicoBRCK is the answer to the challenge of connecting sensors. It is designed to get your sensors online anywhere in the world via GSM and sub GHz networks.
The BRCK products can be utilized for business, education, agriculture, water management, and transport among others.
BRCK is both a hardware and a platform company providing Africa specific solutions to the issue of connectivity. Internet penetration in Africa stands at less than one third of Africa’s 1.2 billion population. BRCK plans to help connect the 70-80 percent of people who cannot afford Internet through one of their new products, Moja WiFi which is a network of free public Internet access points that allows anyone to get online. BRCK also plans to figure out a business model to allow Internet to work for those who cannot pay for it while still remaining a profit generating company.
BRCK is already an award winning company. Some of the awards they have garnered include the 2016 ITU Telecom World award, 2017 Aegis Graham Bell award and the 2017 Design Award, Munich, Germany.
The BRCK team is comprised of the leadership team: Erik Hersman the CEO, Reg Orton the CTO and Philip Walton the COO. Other team members include Nivi Sharma the President of BRCK Education, Segeni Ng’ethe the Director of Moja, Juliana Rotich the Director of BRCK.org and Rebecca Weissburg the Director of Partnerships.
