Mentor entrepreneurs developing businesses that restore ecosystems throughout Kenya
Make a difference by mentoring Kenyan entrepreneurs developing commercially-viable, community-inclusive companies and climate resilient businesses.
Program partners
Local Implementing Partners
What is the Restoration Factory?
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and Bridge for Billions, along with the support of Partnerships For Forests (P4F), join forces to create an incubation program that will support up to 50 enterprises with the potential to restore natural ecosystems.
The program seeks to attract projects that show robust revenue generation perspectives and ambition to reach a critical mass. We aim to build a diverse and attractive cohort demonstrating commercial potential and wide adoption of nature-positive business models.
Why participate?
Make an impact
Be part of the restoration revolution by supporting early-stage ventures in their journey to creating a positive environmental, economic and social impact across Kenya.
Learn to mentor as you go
Connect with the entrepreneur behind the project you are most interested in. As a mentor, you'll be provided with a clear structure and regular check-ins. Our program blends a robust online content with weekly mentorship sessions between you and your mentee to truly create successful companies.
Learn more about our methodology here.
Develop your skills
Develop your hard and soft skills to become a great mentor: past participants report increasing their listening, leadership, coaching abilities, critical thinking as well as business skills.
Anytime, anywhere
Our program can be 100% online for mentors. Collaborate from anywhere at any time through our online platform. No barriers, limits, or excuses: just internet connection.
Get a certificate
Upon completing the 6 months mentoring, you will earn a certificate recognizing all the skills you've developed on the way and the meaningful impact you've had.
Become part of our community
Be part of a community of like-minded earth champions building solutions for today's restoration problems. Keep in touch with other mentors like you supporting entrepreneurs worldwide!
Selection Criteria:
- Passion for entrepreneurship and helping entrepreneurs succeed.
- At least 5 years of professional or post-academic experience.
- Background or interest in business, innovation, finance and/or reforestation.
- Availability to commit for the whole duration of the program (1h30/week during 6 months).
Apply before June 12th, 2022.
Until June 12th, 2022
Tell us about yourself, your experience and profile. The more details you can give us, the better.
During June
If you are one of the selected mentors, you will be invited to participate in a training session to welcome you to the incubation program. In this space, we will cover your role as a mentor, the use of the online incubation platform, the role of the local Entrepreneurship Support Organization and much more!
End of June - Beginning of July
Take part in our matching process! You will have the opportunity to meet online with different entrepreneurs. Once you have met several entrepreneurs, both you and them will send us your rankings in order to let us know who you want to work with. After that, we will make the best mentor-mentee pairs.
Questions about the program?
The Restoration Factory is a business support program for enterprises that put ecosystems’ restoration at the heart of their business model and operations. Further information on the need, role and opportunities for restorative businesses is available from the platform of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/types-ecosystem-restoration
During the duration of the program, you will have to meet once a week with your entrepreneur for 1 hour mentoring meetings. In addition to that, we recommend always dedicating at least 30 extra minutes to review and validate their progress on the platform, and going to the meetings with prior preparation.
We advise you to have a laptop or desktop computer and preferably one of these browsers: Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox. However, our platform is also suitable for cell phones and tablets.
Also, we expect you to have a stable and reliable internet connection both for your weekly review on the platform and to participate in the calls with your mentee via video call.
To facilitate the matching process between mentors and mentees, or as we call it “matching”, we have created the process of “organic matching”.
You will have the opportunity to meet the different participating projects, invite them to a “Virtual Coffee” to get to know the ideas in detail and then both parties can decide if they want to work together or not. This way we make sure that we create solid and lasting mentoring relationships.
A mentor is the person guiding the entrepreneurs throughout the program — someone who understands the intricacies of their businesses. Week after week, you will help your mentee with validating the strategy and designing a growth plan.
As a mentor, you will offer your support using our online platform and meet with your entrepreneur once a week outside the platform (typically using video calls).
No, all mentors in this program are volunteers. On the other hand, all mentors who complete the program will receive a Mentoring Certificate.
Yes, however, we ask that you be realistic with your time commitment. We don’t want anyone to over-commit or set expectations that they will not be able to meet due to lack of time.
As a mentor in the program, you will have a positive impact on the life of a Kenyan entrepreneur and the economy and job creation of the country. You will meet and connect with innovative ideas and develop your mentoring skills, gaining exposure to the latest innovation and entrepreneurship methodologies while helping a start-up grow.
Do you have any other questions?
Connect directly with Afia, Program Manager of the Restoration Factory Program.
