01 / Studio
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Independent
- Build & operate
Software that has to hold.We build it, then we carry it.
Lock & Mercer is a venture studio in Nairobi. We build products for other people, and we build our own, in markets where the hard part is not the build. It is being believed.
LiveSpaceYako

Agents pay to list. Seekers never pay. No money moves between users.
02Studio
Most of this is agency work.
Worth being accurate about: most weeks, Lock & Mercer is doing work for other people. This year that has meant rebuilding an independent business publication, a radio station in Western Kenya, and the country’s consumer federation. Those were briefs, with budgets and deadlines, from clients. Calling that something other than agency work is selling you a word.
The difference is narrower than a positioning line would like it to be, and it is this. We also build our own products, and then we keep them. SpaceYako is ours. We answer its support email, we chase the payment that failed at the gateway, and we take down the listing that turns out to be a scam. Living inside a product changes what we build into somebody else’s, because we already know which decisions turn into someone’s Saturday.
We build for other people. We also build our own, and those we keep.
How the studio works03Ventures
SpaceYako
LiveA property platform for Kenya, built around a single question: can you believe the listing?
We own it and we run it. The support inbox is ours, the takedowns are ours, and the decision about what a verification badge is allowed to imply is made by the people who answer for it.
04Work
Selected work
- 01RestrictedBorder verification, offlineEdge nodes for a police information system rollout, built to keep working when the satellite link does not.Public safety2025
- 02RestrictedField capture on a bad connectionAn offline-first data entry interface for remote clinics, built so an outbreak signal is not lost to a dropped connection.Global health2025
- 03
Business ReportAn independent Kenyan business publication, rebuilt as a server-rendered newsroom its editors run themselves.Publishing2026 - 04
Khendo FMA radio station whose website is part of the transmission rather than a poster for it.Broadcast2026 - 05
COFEKA rebuild of cofek.africa for the country’s consumer watchdog, an organisation whose credibility is the product.Civil society2026
05Services
Build, carry, prove.
Carry
Things we inherit and make reliable.
06Contact
Tell us what’s load-bearing.
Describe the part that breaks if it isn’t right. If it isn’t for us, you’ll get a straight no and a reason.
hello@lockandmercer.com
What to include