Agnes Kwamboka, a mother of eight, could no longer take being assaulted by her customers and extorted by the police. For 16 years, she'd been selling chang'aa, an illicit home-based brew, to support her family. In 2012, she stopped and made a fresh start.
Kwamboka and her family had been among the 2.5 million residents in Nairobi's informal settlements who lacked access to hygienic sanitation. That changed when she scraped together savings and invested in a Fresh Life Toilet. Today, Kwamboka is among the 2,400 franchisees in Nairobi's slums. Operating 3,500 toilets, they provide sustainable sanitation services for nearly 150,000 people - and financial support for their families.
Who: Ani Vallabhaneni, BSBA '02, BSAS '02
Studied: Business and computer science
Location:Nairobi, Kenya
Business model: "We're closing the nutrient loop: We collect sanitation and other organic waste (kitchen and agricultural waste). We feed it to insects that convert it, and then we take the fertilizer to rural areas and put it back in the soil. We then sell the insects as animal feed."
Alumna assistance: In 2019-2020, Nicole Schreiber, BSSSE '14, now at Amazon Web Services, helped Sanergy increase its efficiency through technology development.
