Our mission for today

We are finding what works to reduce poverty by experimenting with potential solutions that address common challenges facing people living in the last mile.


Our vision for tomorrow

We seek a world where disadvantaged people living in the last mile can realize their full potential and enjoy a dignified life, free of poverty.


The values that guide us

EXPERIMENTATION

We value bold ideas that challenge the status quo. We believe in lean experimentation to find what works to address the real needs of people living in the last mile.

PROFESSIONALISM

We undertake our work with professionalism at all times. We deliver a high standard of work to our clients and partners, and practical solutions to those we serve, working with honesty, high ethics and transparency.

COLLABORATION

We believe that finding what works can only be achieved through collective effort. We seek partnerships with those who want to find practical and sustainable solutions from within the development, public and private sectors.

EFFICIENCY

We are lean and cost-effective, striving to minimize unnecessary bureaucracy and leverage our strong partnerships to find the most practical and effective solutions possible.


WHERE WE CAME FROM

Toshi Nakamura and Ewa Wojkowska founded Kopernik in 2010 after seeing that life-changing and affordable technologies existed, but they weren’t reaching the people who lived in the most remote and hard to reach parts of the world - the last mile. Kopernik has been bridging the technology gap ever since.

Our namesake, Nicolaus Copernicus, changed the way people see the world. Kopernik was founded on that same principle, seeking to challenge the status quo in the development sector and to find smarter, more effective solutions that solve persistent problems faced by those living in last mile communities.

We believe that ideas and potential solutions should be tested first and that impact should be demonstrated before large investments are made. With more innovation in the development sector and experimentation of solutions to solve development problems, better programs can be developed and budgets allocated to impactful programs that have big potential to reduce poverty. We are therefore proactive in the testing of ideas that can benefit the larger development community. At our core we want to find what works and what doesn’t to reduce poverty.