Impact Hub Kathmandu is an open, inclusive and collaborative space designed to give social innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers somewhere to meet, work, network and learn. They provide a friendly open space that welcomes people from all across Kathmandu, and beyond! They are part of a global network of 105+ Impact Hubs in over 60 countries, working across disciplines, acting across sectors, with amazing people putting ideas into action. Impact Hub KTM provides business support to Nepali entrepreneurs and businesses with a social purpose. They connect, inspire and support impact entrepreneurs to scale up their projects and enterprises to address some of Nepal’s challenges, convening changemakers to convert their passion and commitments into meaningful projects.
They also have FabLab Nepal, a digital fabrication laboratory to learn, play, create, mentor, invent, and innovate. They provide access to the environment, the skills, the materials, and the advanced technology to allow anyone to make (almost) anything.
Since establishment, they have worked with 56+ enterprises across 8 cohorts of business support program since 2017 and 5000+ youths across various small and large programs. Their hub has been the workspace for 50+ enterprises through their coworking space till date. Community involves youth groups, startups led by young entrepreneurs, makers and innovators from diverse backgrounds. They also have an in-house cafe: Yak Box where people can come, chill in between to take breaks and trampoline for fun!
They are a team of 12 (and still growing!) amazing people who come from diverse backgrounds including business professionals, engineers, makers who most importantly bring loads of fun, creativity and dedication to table!
The impact focus of the work they do is inclusion: They leverage their role in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem to provide new opportunities to people facing barriers to participation, 2) Environment: They are committed to improving activities and processes to support our planet, while inspiring others in the process and 3) Innovation: They take action to inspire innovation, develop resilience and facilitate learning within their community, while being open and agile.
Currently, they are running 15+ projects including projects in FabLab Nepal and more in the pipeline! They are working as implementation partner of the Urban Innovation Program, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (Government) and UNDP Nepal to incubate 15 startups enterprises working for Kathmandu’s culture and heritage, tourism, environment, and public health and help secure funds of upto 50 Nepali lakhs. They are also running UNICEF’s Imagen Ventures Generation Unlimited 3.0 Youth Challenge where they implemented the UNICEF Imagen Ventures Generation Unlimited 3.0 in partnership with UNICEF Nepal, UNDP Nepal and ILO and selected five national winners from Nepal who are now preparing to contest to become the two finalists for the Global Youth Challenge in August this year.
Similarly, they entered into an exciting new partnership with the University of Cambridge – Center for Industrial Sustainability, Field Ready and Sustainable Manufacturing & Environmental Pollution (SMEP) to introduce the project ‘Plastic Waste Remanufacturing for Local Housing: Innovation Ecosystem in Nepal’. This project will be implemented at FabLab Nepal. The University of Cambridge-Center for Industrial Sustainability, the UK is the project leader, and Field Ready, UK, and Impact Hub Kathmandu are the consortium partners. The project aims to improve the living conditions of local residents in Nepal by transforming plastic waste into useful housing products for the locals.
They also host regular community based events called What’s Hub Sessions on Fridays to bring like-minded people together and initiate conversations that matters to Nepal!
If you’d like to connect, contact [email protected] for partnerships, and collaborations!
*all images courtesy of Impact Hub Kathmandu
die Erstellung dieses Blogs Post von der Stiftung Nord-Süd-Brücken mit finanzieller Unterstützung des BMZ Gefördert
