A delivery partner for the AI teams training the next generation of models.

Impact Outsourcing is a data annotation, validation, and AI model training services company based in Nairobi. We build managed, high accuracy, human in the loop operations that AI teams can put into production and leave running.

Founded
2021 · Nairobi
Headcount
500+ full time
Certification
ISO 27001
Services
Annotation, QA, HITL

Our operating thesis

The best AI teams want an operation, not a platform.

An Impact Outsourcing delivery team member on the Nairobi floor, with the wider workstation bay visible behind her.
ON THE FLOOR NAIROBI, KENYA

When we started Impact in 2021, most data partners on the market were built around one idea. Put a labelling tool in front of a crowd, collect consensus, and call that quality. That approach works until you try to ship a model. Real quality comes from people who are trained on your task, measured against your schema, and held to the same delivery discipline your own product team runs on.

So we built the opposite of a crowdsourced marketplace. Every client gets a named team and a single delivery lead. Inter annotator agreement is tracked like a production metric. Quality reviews sit inside the workflow rather than bolted on at the end. Our information security program is ISO 27001 certified because the data you send us is the data your model runs on.

We are a managed data operations partner. Annotation, validation, and AI model training services are delivered from a single place, by a single team, for as long as you need them.

Impact Outsourcing · Est. 2021, Nairobi

The team

Annotators, reviewers, and linguists trained on your schema.

We hire from a deep pool of qualified local talent and put every new operator through a structured calibration program before they touch client data. Annotation, validation, and model training work is handled by people who have been taught your task, rather than people learning it on your records.

500+
Full time operators working across annotation, validation, and human in the loop services.
60%
Women across the workforce. Balance is built in from the way we hire.
3 wk
Minimum calibration period on gold standard data before any operator joins live production work.
7+
Languages covered natively, including Swahili, Amharic, Somali, and Arabic.
Three Impact Outsourcing team members gathered around a laptop, reviewing work together on the Nairobi delivery floor.
IMG_001 · CALIBRATION_ROOM Nairobi · Kenya

How we operate

Four principles we do not negotiate away.

01 / Managed

Named teams. One delivery lead. No anonymous queues.

Every engagement is staffed with a dedicated team and a single accountable lead. When something needs attention, you know exactly who is handling it and how to reach them.

02 / Measured

Quality is a first class metric.

Inter annotator agreement, multi tier review, and written accuracy thresholds sit inside every statement of work. Quality reports go out every week of delivery, for the lifetime of the engagement.

03 / Secure

Enterprise grade information security, by default.

ISO 27001 certified information security management system. Access controlled environments. NDAs on day one. Sensitive data is handled to the same standard your internal teams already apply.

04 / Equitable

Fair, full time work. No gig labour.

Above market wages. Documented progression paths. A workforce that is 60 percent women. An AI data supply chain that a responsible buyer is comfortable naming in public.

Inside the operation

A working floor, not a content set.

Our delivery operation runs from a purpose built facility in Nairobi. Redundant power. Dual carrier fibre connectivity. Delivery leads sitting within metres of the operators they manage. A stable physical and digital environment that production data pipelines can sit on for years.

Location
Nairobi, Kenya
Power
Redundant UPS + generator
Connectivity
Dual carrier fibre
Floor plan
Operators and leads co seated
A delivery lead and senior reviewer coaching a team member at his workstation on the Impact Outsourcing delivery floor in Nairobi. On the delivery floor ● LIVE
IMG_002 · DELIVERY_FLOOR Nairobi · Kenya

By the numbers

What operating at scale looks like.

2M+
Records annotated

Delivered for our longest running annotation client, sustained across multiple pipeline generations.

500+
Full time operators

Trained, calibrated, and retained in Nairobi. A stable workforce rather than a contractor rotation.

6
Production AI clients

Across computer vision, natural language, and multimodal pipelines. Repeat engagements, not one off projects.

ISO
27001 Certified

Certificate number 452AGI102121. Enterprise grade information security, audited and renewed.

Social impact

An ethical AI data supply chain, by construction.

We built Impact so that a responsible buyer does not have to choose between production grade data and an ethical story about how that data is produced. Both live in the same operation.

UN SDG 5 · Gender UN SDG 8 · Decent work UN SDG 10 · Inequality
01

Fair pay, above local market

Full time contracts, paid training, healthcare benefits. Gig economics do not produce production grade annotation.

+
02

60 percent women across the workforce

A deliberately balanced operation in a sector that too often defaults to the opposite.

60%
03

Documented career progression

Annotator to reviewer to lead to delivery manager. The ladder is written down and people climb it.

4 step
04

500+ full time roles created

Every one of them full time, salaried, and trained. No platform style piece work.

500+

Work with us

Two ways to start, whichever fits your pipeline.

Most conversations begin with a 30 minute scoping call. If you would rather see quality before you commit, we will run a free trial on a slice of your data first.