BRCK的非洲免费Wi-Fi赌注：2019年44.5万公交用户，2022年黯然退场

做的是什么生意

BRCK was a Nairobi hardware-and-services company that designed rugged WiFi routers (SupaBRCK, PicoBRCK) and ran Moja, a free public WiFi network subsidized by commercial partners, aimed at connecting people in frontier markets.

启动资金：$10M backing including Steve Case's Revolution fund (TechCrunch, 2019)

起因

BRCK was founded in Nairobi in 2013 by Erik Hersman — co-founder of Ushahidi and founder of iHub — and colleagues who had spent years building tech in environments where connectivity failed; the company's bet was that the internet's affordability problem needed hardware built in Africa, not just cheaper data plans (TechCrunch author bio; Unreasonable Group).

经过

BRCK launched its Moja free public WiFi in 2018, put SupaBRCK routers on Nairobi matatus, and in Feb 2019 acquired ISP Surf (1,200 hotspots, 200,000 customers). By July 2019 Moja had 445,000 monthly active users on buses plus 150,000 on fixed networks in Kenya and Rwanda, and BRCK signed a Swvl partnership aiming to reach 700 buses by 2020; Forbes reported its South Africa launch in Nov 2019 (TechCrunch; Unreasonable Group).

结果

Wound down: Business Daily (2022-10-17) listed BRCK among six Kenyan startups that shut down in full or in part during 2022, and Unreasonable Group lists BRCK as 'no longer operating'.

可借鉴之处

用硬件证明需求并不能让生意成立：广告补贴的免费Wi-Fi模式需要合作伙伴的规模和资本，当资金枯竭，覆盖也随之消失。