FundiFix is a social enterprise that spun out from the University of Oxford – Smith School of Enterprise and Environment (SSEE), research into the idea of remotely monitoring rural water points. The research … read moreteam developed a GSM-enabled Water-point Data Transmitter (WDT) that collates information on real-time abstraction volumes and breakdown incidents, as well as derive time taken to repair. The first experimental WDT was installed in Kenya in the year 2011 and deployment to date has grown to 366 ‘smart’ hand-pumps in Kenya. 
The smart hand-pumps research provided insights on the causes of high non-functionality of rural water infrastructure and informed the establishment of a social enterprise – FundiFix Limited, in the year 2014, to provide preventive maintenance and repair services to rural communities. FundiFix Ltd (with two franchisees, trading as Miambani Ltd and Kwale Hand-pump Services Ltd) is a Kenyan–registered and owned company and currently operates in Kwale and Kitui Counties. There are ongoing discussions to scale up operations following interest from other Counties in Kenya and Countries in sub-Saharan Africa.