We started Trenax because good African businesses were being sold bad software.
A Nairobi engineering studio building for the market we live in — and holding ourselves to the standard of the studios we compete with globally.
In 2021 our founder was asked to rescue a logistics system that had cost a Nairobi company eighteen months and most of a year's profit. It did not work. It had never worked. The vendor had built for a market they had never visited - assuming stable connectivity, card payments and enterprise Android devices, none of which matched how the business actually ran.
That project was not unusual. Across the region, ambitious companies were paying international rates for software that ignored M-Pesa, buckled on 3G and shipped without documentation or handover. The alternative was a freelancer who disappeared after invoice three.
Trenax exists to close that gap. We build with the engineering discipline of a global studio and the market knowledge of a team that lives here - who know that your customer is on a mid-range Android phone, paying by mobile money, on a network that drops.
Four years on we have shipped over fifty products across four countries and twelve industries. The principle has not changed: build for the conditions that are real, hand over everything, and stay reachable after launch.
Mission
To build digital infrastructure that lets African businesses compete on a global standard - engineered for the market they actually operate in.
Vision
A region where the best software serving African businesses is built by African engineers, and where owning your technology is the default rather than the exception.
- Products shipped
- 50+Products shippedWeb, mobile, software and IoT builds since 2021.
- Industries served
- 12Industries servedFrom clinics and schools to logistics and fintech.
- Countries
- 4CountriesKenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda deployments.
- Client retention
- 98%Client retentionMost clients return for a second engagement.
Albert Mwai
Founder & Principal Engineer
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Albert founded Trenax after a decade building systems for logistics, fintech and health organisations across East Africa - and watching too many of them fail for reasons that had nothing to do with the code and everything to do with assumptions made three continents away.
He leads architecture on Trenax's largest engagements and still reviews every system design that leaves the studio. His conviction is simple: software that ignores how people in this market pay, connect and work is not sophisticated, it is unfinished.
Build for the network you have, not the network you wish you had. Hand over everything. Be reachable at month eighteen, not just week one.
Six commitments, and what each one costs us
Values are only meaningful when they are inconvenient. These occasionally are.
- 01
Innovation with a purpose
We adopt new technology when it solves a real constraint for you, not because it is trending. Every architectural choice has to justify itself against your budget and your team's ability to maintain it.
- 02
Reliability over spectacle
A beautiful product that goes down under load is a failed product. We test on the conditions our users actually face - slow networks, cheap devices, real concurrency.
- 03
Creative excellence
We hold interface craft to the same standard as engineering. Design is not decoration applied afterwards; it is how a system explains itself to the person using it.
- 04
Radical transparency
Published price ranges, weekly demos, honest status. If something slips we tell you the week it slips, not the week before launch.
- 05
Built to be handed over
Every system ships documented, in mainstream technology, in a repository you own. Our value is the work, not your dependence on us.
- 06
African excellence, global standard
We compete with international studios on engineering quality and beat them on market understanding. Both halves matter.
Small teams, full ownership
Three to five people per engagement, each owning a domain end to end. You meet the people who will actually build it.
Albert Mwai
Founder & Principal Engineer
Architecture, systems design
Wanjiku Mburu
Lead Product Designer
UI/UX, design systems
Brian Ochieng
Senior Full-stack Engineer
Next.js, Node.js, PostgreSQL
Aisha Hassan
Mobile Engineering Lead
Flutter, React Native
David Kiprop
Infrastructure Engineer
AWS, Docker, CI/CD
Mercy Atieno
Delivery Manager
Discovery, client delivery
Joseph Mutua
IoT & Embedded Engineer
Firmware, telemetry
Nadia Omar
Brand & Motion Designer
Identity, motion, video
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The working culture behind the output
Small teams, full ownership
Three to five people per engagement, each owning a domain end to end. No handoffs between a team that designed it and a team that has to live with it.
Demos beat status reports
Every two weeks you see working software, not a percentage. Progress you can click is the only progress we count.
Engineering time is protected
Deep work blocks, asynchronous by default, and a meeting culture that has to justify itself. Good systems need uninterrupted thinking.
We build in this market on purpose
Our team is in Nairobi because the constraints here produce better engineers. Building for intermittent networks and low-end devices makes everything else easy.
Seven steps, and you see working software from week six
Every stage has a named deliverable you can hold us to, and a demo you can click.
- 01
Discovery
1 - 2 weeks
Stakeholder interviews, process mapping and, where it matters, sitting alongside your team while they work. We surface the constraints that would otherwise appear in week ten.
You get: Requirements document, process map and fixed-scope proposal
- 02
Planning
1 week
We define the system architecture, choose the stack against your maintenance reality, sequence the build into demo-able milestones and lock the scope in writing.
You get: Technical architecture, milestone plan and signed scope
- 03
Design
2 - 4 weeks
Wireframes, then high-fidelity design built as a tokenised system that maps directly to components. You approve screens before engineering starts, which is where change is cheapest.
You get: Design system, approved screens and clickable prototype
- 04
Development
4 - 16 weeks
Typed code, peer review on every change, automated tests on critical paths and continuous deployment to a staging environment you can open at any time.
You get: Working software on staging, demoed every two weeks
- 05
Testing
1 - 3 weeks
Functional testing, load testing, security review and real-device testing on mid-range Android over throttled connections. Your team runs acceptance testing with our support.
You get: Test report, performance benchmarks and sign-off
- 06
Launch
1 week
Production deployment, data migration, DNS and monitoring setup, staff training and a documented rollback path. Where the risk warrants it we run old and new in parallel.
You get: Live system, trained team and operating manual
- 07
Support
Ongoing
Uptime monitoring, bug fixes, security patching and a named engineer who already knows your system. No re-onboarding a stranger when something breaks.
You get: Monitoring, SLA response and a monthly health report
Discovery is a fixed-fee engagement of its own, and you keep the requirements document whether or not we build it. Start there.
Tools chosen so you can hire for them
We pick technology you can maintain after handover, not whatever is novel this quarter.
- Frontend
- Next.js, React, TailwindCSS
- Language
- TypeScript
- Mobile
- Flutter, React Native
- Backend
- Node.js, Supabase, Firebase
- Data
- PostgreSQL, Redis
- Infrastructure
- Docker, AWS, Vercel, Cloudflare
- Design
- Figma
Platform partnerships
- AWSCloud infrastructure partner
- VercelDeployment platform partner
- Safaricom DarajaRegistered M-Pesa API integrator
- Google CloudFirebase and Maps platform
Confirm each partnership status before publishing — only claim programmes Trenax is formally enrolled in.
Want to work with this team?
Start with a thirty-minute call. You will speak to an engineer, not an account manager.
We reply within one business day.