162 selected startups from Kathmandu, Nepal

matthias · January 16, 2019, 12:51am

Content

3. Requirements for startups in this list

1. Introduction

I needed a list of startups in Nepal, so @anu and me made this one. Just dropping it here because I believe it can serve as an inspiration for future entrepreneurs around the world. Enjoy! Oh, and: this is a wiki, welcome to add more If you don’t want to edit directly here, just make your proposal in a comment below.

If you’re rather looking for a new idea for a startup, there’s also my list about that:

2. The List

Tootle. Two-wheeler ride-sharing platform “made in Nepal”.
Pathao. A Bangladeshi two-wheeler ride sharing platform that now also operates in Nepal.
Nepal Communitere. Coworking space with access to a humanitarian-focused makerspace / workshop. Also has a café, called Cargo Café.
The Local Project Nepal. Sells high-end Nepali handicrafts work, esp. clothing items.
HoneyGuide. Traveller information app.
Portal Bikes. They make really great cargo bicycles, “made in Nepal”.
Mad Honey. Sells psychedelic rhododendron honey. See also their Facebook page.
Best Mad Honey. Another startup selling psychedelic rhododendron honey. See also their Facebook page. If psychedelic honey is what you’re looking for, have a look – this one has the more attractive prices, and their headquarters is in Kathmandu so you can probably visit if you are around the Valley.
Bikalpa Art Cafe & Bar. Coworking space, event space, art space. Also a bar / restaurant.
Doko Recyclers. They buy trash to recycle it, so probably you can buy the recycled materials from them.
Khaanpin Night Food Delivery. Food delivery service.
Fit Box. Lunch delivery service optimized and personalized for health.
Krown Laboratory and Referral Center. Medical testing lab.
Work Around. Co-working space. See also their Facebook page.
The Platform Inc. Co-working space.
Lindu. Coworking space embedded in a hostel. Near Thamel.
Haushala Creatives. A co-working space founded by a group of social entrepreneurs in Patan (see here on coworker.com). They also create and sell fashionable fabric items. See also their Facenbook page.
Karma Coffee Nepal. Boutique café selling coffee beans and handicrafts items made in Nepal.
One Tree Stop. Store that has 13 different local Nepali brands, esp. clothing and handicrafts and artsy things.
Gorkha Aesthetics. Fitness / lifestyle clothing brand developed and made in Nepal.
Onion Films. Video production company.
The Himalayan Rabbit Farm. The first commercial rabbit farm in Nepal, established in 2012.
Shiwakoti Bags. A long-established bag manufacturer “made in Nepal”.
Alternative. Computer graphics software for customized and made-to-order rugs.
Foodmandu. On-demand food delivery from restaurants in Kathmandu and Lalitpur.
Foodmario. Buying and selling home-cooked meals.
Cora Nepal. A very nice small guesthouse. Very very nice.
Urban Girl. Apparel for women. See also their Facebook page.
Urban Girl Cakes. Made-to-order celebratory cakes.
Dogsee Chew. They produce and export long-lasting dog treats. It’s essentially traditional Nepali chhurpi cheese made from yak or cow milk. See also this Forbes article about them.
Adda. A co-working space.
Mero Office. A co-working space.
Oojam. A co-working space.
49 Hours Studio. A photo studio.
ACT360. A digital marketing company, providing design, media production, website development and web marketing services.
e-Zone International. A software company providing software for managing organizations in the context of Nepal: accounting, attendance, human resource management, school management etc…
Arcube Games & Animation. Service provider for 3D modeling and animation, game development and virtual reality applications. They can also do 3D CAD.
Bidhee. Software development company providing website and web development and mobile app development.
Bihani Social Venture. A social enterprise providing medical and social services for seniors.
Young Innovations. Established and relatively large software development company that can provide all kinds of custom software solutions. Focuses on projects for government transparency and accountability.
Kathmandu Living Labs. Non-profit civic technology company working mostly with mobile technology and geodata. They coordinate the OpenStreetMap initiatives in Nepal, and had a great website for incident mapping and crisis response after the 2015 earthquake. See also their Wikipedia article.
Chimes Restaurant. A kind of gourmet restaurant in Sanepa, Lalitpur.
ĀMĀKO. A mother-daughter company producing traditional Nepali pickles (achar and so on).
The HUB. Thamel based multi-business space that includes the Karma Coffee boutique café (see above) and a travel tour operator. Located in Thamel.
Maya Ko Chino. A collectively operated store for handicrafts in Jhamsikhel, Kathmandu.
Everfresh. Café and coffee shop, established by Nuwa coffee estate. Also they often hosts events or live music.
SmartDoko. Nice Nepal-made online marketplace. They have a cashback / coupon points program.
Himalayan French Cheese. Two French cheesemakers and several Nepalis make French cheese in Nepal since years here. Includes Yak cheese. See also their Facebook page.
Khalti. A digital wallet and online payment service. They also have features to issue all kind of (digital) transportation tickets, entry tickets and coupons on behalf of their businesses customers (see here and here).
Naagiko Honey. Honey from a group of farmers in Makwanpur. They have a retail outlet in Kathmandu at Café Croissant.
REVIVE. A fabric upcycling company, creating laptop bags, accessories etc…
DroNEPAL. Drone services like mapping, 3D mapping and aerial photography / videography.
Biocomp. Produces organic compost and fertilizer, in cooperation with a Dutch foundation. See also their Facebook page.
Wash Nepal. Car / motorcycle wash and repair shop.
CNC Craft. Produces custom-made CNC furniture, doors, patterns etc. in wood. Quite artsy. See also their Facebook page.
ND’s Organic Coffee. Outlet of an organic coffee farm.
Washmandu. Laundry service with online ordering, pickup and delivery. See also their Facebook page.
Hamri Bahini Ko Pasal. Social enterprise for employment of domestic helpers. Operates in the Kathmandu valley only (so far), with >2800 people in their database (see). In addition, they sell merchandise created by their didis and offer Green Housekeeping Trainings. They are one of the startups of Himalayan Climate Initiative (see).
Cake9. Bakery for celebratory cakes, with online ordering and delivery.
Anthropose. Anthropose introduced line-up of eyewear as a means to solve the deep rooted problem of cataracts and high drop-out rate among students attending public schools in Nepal.
Local Women’s Handicrafts. According to their website, “a fair trade textile and handicraft collective in Kathmandu, focused on empowering and educating disadvantaged women using sustainable methods. All our products are ethically produced, providing fair wages and working conditions for the women who make them.” Founded by Nasreen Sheikh.
Bright Star Society. NGO that cares to enable disabled persons in Nepal to live independently. Not sure if they sell anything, but they bring innovative assistive technology to Nepal, for example (see). See also their Facebook page.
Safetyknot. NGO that cares about work safety and accident prevention in Nepal. They can be contracted for education and trainings about this.
Khaalisisi. Recycling coordination platform in Kathmandu valley where you order a pickup online and they send a collector for the recyclables (who will pay for the material). See also their Facebook page.
Women for Human Rights. A NGO supporting single women in Nepal. Among other activities, they seem to have a product to sell: in collaboration with Khaalisisi, they collect used jeans fabric and women then sew that into school bags for sale (see).
Green Design Nepal. Studio for architecture and interior design. Can also provide quality 3D renderings. See also their Facebook page.
Let Us Design. Interior design studio for home and office spaces. Can also provide quality 3D renderings. See also their Facebook page.
Robotics Association of Nepal. Friendly association that promotes robotics and electronic technology in Nepal. People can join (for a fee) and also participate in their annual “Yantra” robotic competition. Oh and they organize MissTech for women interested in tech. See also their Facebook page.
Stories of Nepal. A one-photographer journey to uncover the hidden stories of Nepal’s people. Not exactly selling anything (though the project sometimes does collaborations), but a worthy project to support. See also the Facebook page.
Bhav Products. A creative stationery brand “made in Nepal”, with a wide range of products.
Black Snow Creations. Graphic design, web design and marketing agency.
Biruwa. Business consulting, market research and startup mentoring.
Karkhana. They offer innovative learning experiences for children inside and outside of school, all focused around engineering, problem solving and creativity. See also their Facebook page.
Abari. A research and design company working with innovative bamboo and earth construction methods. They provide some open source designs and also have an own furniture line on sale. See also their Facebook page.
The Record. A high quality journal with explanatory and investigatory pieces of journalism for Nepal. They don’t sell access, but are reader supported. See also their Facebook page.
Crafted in Kathmandu. Platform that sells handmade items of multiple Nepali artisans and craftspeople. Great pieces in their collection. (Not too sure yet about what their revenue sharing model is, i.e. how much goes to the artists.)
Everything Organic Nursery. A nursery in Kavre district (so not in Kathmandu) that provides trainings in bio-intensive organic agriculture and sells open-pollinated seeds and grafted seedlings of fruit and nut trees. See also their Facebook page.
Pagoda Labs. A web design and web / software development company. See also their Facebook page.
Little Things. A startup that designs creative greeting cards and merchandises with a touch of sarcasm related to Nepali society / culture.
Studio Sarcastic. An art studio in Kathmandu, owned by sweet cat crazy girl named Sneha, specializing in witty humour-filled lifestyle products as well as designs that add their own splash of refreshingly original artistic twist.
Danfe by Saath. Danfe is a Nepali clothing brand and social enterprise which produces and promotes Nepal made fashion. Each product of Danfe provides employment opportunity to young Nepali women. They also offer sewing classes. See this newspaper article about them.
The Mint Studio. A lifestyle brand in Nepal that loves creating Nepali clothing apparels as well as products.
Offering Happiness. An award winning, unique “surprise event” planning company which is famous among Nepali young crowd.
Kayo Studio. A startup that attempts to make Nepali handicrafts into a luxury brand by bringing various modern twists to traditional wood as well as jewellery work.
HATTI HATTI . HATTI HATTI works to empower people in marginalized communities. All of their products are environmentally sustainable as they recycle fabrics into beautiful, handmade garments and accessories. They also offer sewing classes.
Masala Beads. One of the favourite Nepali handmade jewellery and handicraft brands.
Mechha. Mheecha is a Nepali brand that originates from Kathmandu, Nepal. The word ‘mheecha’ is a Newa term which means ‘pouch’, also known as ‘thaili’ or ‘thailo’ in Nepali. Meecha are inspired by the traditional mheecha for its minimal, classy design and its strength and durability.
Dulla. Nepali favourite luxury shoes that are made in limited editions, only 100 pairs for each design, which makes them exclusive. They also provide free life-time servicing, making Dulla a trusted and loved lifestyle brand.
DOCCHA. An artful footwear line, handmade in Nepal. There is also a recent interview with one of the founders.
Urban Nomad. Urban Nomad is a creative branding agency which works with different companies, individuals or organizations to get their brand name recognized in the market. They have been providing their services through photography, videography, graphic design, animated videos, digital marketing and other kinds of creations to get their clients’ brands recognized.
Timro Kawadiwala. Timro Kawadiwala draws a concept of making a relation of waste buyers with households / businesses so that a Green Community can be formed by recycling the non-decomposable materials.
Sagarmatha Pencil Udyog. This startup carries a story of young man who quit his banking job in Kuwait to manufacture high quality environmentally friendly pencils from recycled paper instead of wood in Nepal.
Chronicles of Himalayas. A commercial gaming venture, the first of its kind in Nepal. An epic story of a 15 year old Sherpa boy from a hidden village in the Everest area who sets out to find his missing father but destiny leads him to his origin. Chronicles Of The Himalayas is a adventure and mystery experience set in the Himalayan Wilderness. Hidden from the eyes of the common folks, peek in to the extra ordinary world where reality, folklore and magic come together.
WPall.club. A Biology student who started an IT company at the age of 18 The club was started from 2 people, now WPAll has 7 people, working with one part time employee. Having a motive for enhancement of creative writing and affiliate marketing, the company has a good business going around from third-company products (themes, plugins) having both free and premium options.
Golden Peak Tea. Golden Peak Tea promotes Nepali agricultural products from small villages of Nepal in urban cities areas Kathmandu and also exports these products to outside nations so as to show the world what these small villages of Nepal possess.
Taalo. Taalo is a small step to modify the definition of entrepreneurship. Whether you design from the new fabrics or the idled rags, there is always the scope of entrepreneurship when you think out of the box and splurge the creativity. It aims to reuse and recycle the wasted fabrics for something more useful and creative.
Yatri Design Studio. Yatri Design Studio was founded in 2017 to produce green urban mobility solutions. Their designs are completely based on aerospace technology and the team has taken an initiative to create sleek, elegant and environment friendly two-wheelers for comfortable urban mobility.
Bagels Kathmandu. New York Style, hand rolled, water boiled bagels with house-made spreads right here in Kathmandu.
Sarathi. Sarathi is a mobility solution, offering ride booking, leasing, car rental and car sharing. The company was established in 2016 and started its operations from 2017. The tech based company registered in Nepal creates opportunities for a range of service providers, by blending traditional providers with a modern market model to create a disruptive industry.
Tyre Treasures . Tyre Treasure was initiated from the “Green Innovation Startup Challenge”. It was organized by WWF Nepal and the NE Hub organization. The company has planned and researched about the prospectus of using recycled tires to create various products, with an ambition of establishing a profitable business.
Farm to Finger. Farm to Finger is an online based venture that deals with bridging the gap between the rural farmers and the urban customers.
Artuido. The Artudio Center for Visual Arts is “a contemporary art collective / platform of and for artists and art enthusiasts.” They organize art camps, exhibitions and art education.
Jamarko. Women-powered small industry creating recycled paper and paper products. Around since 2001. They also showcase and sell Nepali handicrafts in their outlet to support local artists and artisans.
Open Learning Exchange Nepal. A NGO caring for quality education in rural schools in Nepal. They are quite good with tech and created, among other things, Nepal’s only digital educational library E-Pustakalaya. See also their Facebook page.
Metro Tarkari. Online supermarket for vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy products, also including local organic products. Includes free delivery inside Kathmandu Valley. Not a big operation yet: some young people with a basement and a good website. But already they supply for 200 orders a day with a 100% year-on-year growth rate and 15 kg per order on average (source). Nice concept!
Cloud Factory. One of the few internationally successful Nepali startups. This is an outsourcing provider for digital jobs around data entry / quality control / enhancement, with several hundred workers in Nepal and elsewhere. They have a self-developed management solution for remote work called WorkStreams. Their worker-facing website is cloudfactory.com.np.
Manjari Coffee. A well-loved coffee roaster in Kathmandu, selling their coffee via various outlets in shops and cafés in the Valley.
Nepal Innovation Lab. A makerspace, lab and business incubator for humanitarian innovation. They have various offers to mentor people with innovative ideas from idea stage to impact stage. See also their Facebook page.
Hamro Design. A web design, web development and graphic design studio. See also their Facebook page.
Nepal Picture Library. A small NGO caring to build and preserve a visual memory of Nepal. Not sure if they sell a product, but it’s an organization worth of support. See also their Facebook page.
Aliexpress Nepal. Provides logistics services for ordering and delivering products from AliExpress to Nepal. See also their Facebook page.
Upcreativ Technology. A web design and web development agency.
Nepal in Data. A very large collection of statistical data about Nepal, all licenced CC-BY 4.0. Not sure if they have a commercial product, but they could totally develop a business case from this given that they are unique in providing accessible datasets about Nepal.
Smart Solutions. A bit larger (>40 people) software development and web design company.
Kripa Kreations. A talented woman with her own style of illustrations and comics. Not sure how active right now, but so much talent. See also her Facebook page.
Metalwood. Architecture, interior design and custom furniture making company with their own “metal and wood” style for furniture. See also their Facebook page.
Maker KT. An initiative started by one woman to introduce other women to making, hacking and repairing in diverse fields (electronics, bicycles, scooters and whatever their next workshop brings). See also their Facebook page.
DIY Nepal. A gifted illustrator / artists. She offers sketching as a service.
Quixote’s Cove. A book shop where people really love books, reading, literature. See also their Facebook page.
EduLift Academy. Innovative educational space for school children, focused around experiential learning. They offer various programs both for children and teachers.
Himalayan Climate Initiative. A business incubator for enterprises that aim to reduce Nepal’s greenhouse gas emissions. So far this resulted in 12 startups emerging from their program.
Nagar Mitra. A social enterprise operating a collection center for PET bottles, which they purchase from local waste collectors for above-market prices. The bottles are then sorted and baled for exporting to India. (However, if you need PET for 3D printing or other plastic work, you can probably buy it from them as well.)
Climate Adapt - Jalabayu Anukul. A not-for-profit consulting company that advises businesses, schools etc. how to lower their carbon footprint.
Health At Home. Healthcare platform that organized to provide doctors, nurses, vaccinations and pharmacy to people’s homes. They even have a lab on call service where they collect samples at home and deliver the report.
Innovation Hub Kathmandu. Organized by the U.S. Embassy in Nepal, this provides events, workshops etc. to support business innovation. Also they offer paid membership in their library and makerspace (with 3D printers and lasercutters).
SunFarmer Nepal. A household solar installation company launced in January 2014 that completed over 200 installations since then. They also operate SunFarmer, an incubator that wants to launch similar companies worldwide.
StoryCycle. An organization that holds regular story collection events and events for mapping local businesses etc., to help understand Nepal through stories. All their stories are online.
Portal Prefab. They sell prefabricated kits to create the scaffolding and roof for a one-story house or warehouse, in various lengths. Walls are then added with local materials. (Also, after the 2015 earthquake they designed and provided the ubiquitous shelter homes, and they still share the instructions how to make one.)
Himali Samay. Made-in-Nepal wrist watches made from walnut wood (!), about 3600 NPR each.
Pixel IT and Graphics. Web design, web development and graphics design agency.
Himali Technology. Web development and Linux server security.
Iron Monk Works. A high-end motorcycle repair and maintenance shop.
Kaagmandu Magazine. Young and fresh magazine made in Kathmandu. It’s free to read, but they sell advertisements. (Their associated giftshop is still in the making and seemingly the online outlet of Nepol, an existing brick-and-mortar gift shop.)
Brewshala. A coffee roasting, brewing and cupping lab that offers courses about everything coffee and can also roast beans for customers. They started in late 2018 and will have a proper webpage soon at brewshala.com.
Elance Digital Media. A service provider for everything around SEO and website marketing. Also, they are well-known in Kathmandu for their SEO courses.
Laptop Nepal. A repair workshop for computers. They say they repaired over 8700 notebook computers by now and you can track the status of your repair online. They say they can even do reflow work for loose chips on the mainboard.
DADA Corp. Bunch of creative photographers who envisions to deliver perfect click to refresh your moment.
Her Farm Films. They offer video and audio recording for events, video editing, radio shows and courses for all that. Not inside Kathmandu Valley but in Mankhu. Dhading – so, not too far either, well within reach when wanting to go to a multi-day course.
GInnovation. Construction company that can do all kinds of small and large metal constructions including warehouses. They also developed a portable rocket stove.
Satyadeep Photography. Photography and graphic design.
Aji’s. A really lovely startup: they present and sell products made by the elderly, like knitted clothing and traditional rice stools. Their products are available both in Kathmandu and in the U.S.A. There’s also a nice portrait story about them in Glocal Khabar.
Himalayan Allo Udhyog. A company established in 2009 by Mala Thapa Magar, now employing 1-15 people and producing fabric items from the Himalayan stinging nettle plant, which is a traditional technique found in Nepal. There is also a good interview with the founder.
Calligraphy Center. True to their name, they promote beautiful handwriting. With courses and such.
Yoban Production. A film and photo studio. Among other things, they offer photography and videography for weddings.
GreenGrowth. Lets customers order organic food items from different regions of Nepal online, and delivers three times a week in Kathmandu. Most information is on their Facebook page. Oh and they gave an interview in Kathmandu Post recently.
Kazi Studios. An established design studio, mostly doing webdesign and graphics design.
BahasShala. An educational center that offers compact courses for webdesign, webdevelopment etc…
Empowerment Academy. An upstart academy for teachers to become better teachers. Promotes modern forms of education in workshops and courses.
Kathmandu Jobs. A job portal for IT and other digital jobs in Nepal.
e-Sewa Pasal. An online supermarket for every food, household and personal care item, including home appliances. Basically the relaunch of the former “Bhatbhateni Online” site.
Kirana. An online supermarket for food (not for fresh fruits and vegetables, though) and for personal care items. Said to process 8,200 orders per day as of 2019-03 (source), though that seems a very high number.
Cozy Cup. A small initiative selling the mooncup (a re-usable menstrual product) in Nepal, imported from the U.S… It’s not exactly cheap in Nepal but pays off by being long-term re-usable. And of course it’s ecologically meaningful and a good long-term solution for those many women in Nepal who can’t reliably buy sanitary pads in local stores.
I am the Gardener. An innovative nursery for horticulture and floriculture. They gave a good interview, detailing their ideas and strategy.
Sisters’ Enterprises. Outlet for cane and bamboo furniture that is handmade in Nepal. Led by Priyanshi Pradhan and her sister. So far, no website or Facebook page found
Whpedia. A platform that connects tutors / teachers to students looking for tuition classes at home.
Customized Furniture Nepal. Provides made-to-fit custom made furniture, including home and office furniture, racks, shelves and kitchen cabinets.
Nuga:. Produces hand-made body care products from all-natural ingredients.
Meals on Wheels. A restaurant for home delivery. Located in Patan, Kathmandu.
Latido Leathers. The first leather fashion brand in Nepal. They actually manufacture in Nepal. A good part of their product range is motorcycle clothing.
Disaster Hack. A community using technology and art in disaster recovery. Somehow affiliated with the Burning Man festival. They have a great new space in Jhamsikhel, Kathmandu that is “free for public use, a decommodified zone with nothing for sale or advertised, a co-working space, hackerspace with shared technology resources, and a place to create and foster sustainable businesses and projects” (source). See also their Facebook page.
Sama Pencils. A brand new startup. They produce made-in-Nepal pencils from recycled newspaper. As it’s a bio-degradable product, it’s a very ecological way of writing. See also their Instagram page and their introduction in this thread below.
Samsara Creation. A company started by six graduate students in 2019, creating clothing accessories and clothing items from end-of-life textiles. With a nice artsy touch. See also their website.

3. Requirements for startups in this list

The list above is intentionally a bit limited because of the rather specialized purpose I need it for. These are the criteria I used for including an organization into that list or not:

physical presence in Kathmandu, Nepal; this means, at least one person working for the organization has to be full-time or part-time in Kathmandu; selling the products via a third-party distributor or shop is not sufficient for this list
well-defined product or service (so you know what they can do for you when you read a description)
low to moderate price per unit of sale (~40,000 NPR at most)
high value addition (means, a service or a mostly self-made product; basically everything except mere resellers / traders)
innovative / new / awesome or otherwise great
desire to expand their business (esp. a new business)
from a wide range of different sectors, ideally all aspects of life from food to healthcare, education to accommodation, furniture to mobility
some kind of public web presence (so we can reasonably assume the startup does not rather prefer to operate without public exposure)
no cafés or restaurants, because there are just way too many of these; with exceptions for innovative ones like boutique cafés etc. that are not purely gastronomy
no travel agencies, because they are not relevant for the locals; with exceptions for those that are different or otherwise exceptional

4. Ways to find startups in Nepal

This is not a straight-forward task as there is no central, public business register. However, here are the options I used (or in some cases, plan to use to add to the list above):

StartupsNepal. A directory of 263 startups in Nepal as of 2019-01. Still to be evaluated from result 46.
Glocal Khabar Startup Stories. A section in a website for a young Nepali audience, regularly publishing portraits of Nepali startups.
F6S for Kathmandu. A well-known international startup registry, listing 358 startups in Kathmandu.
AngelList for Kathmandu. A well-known international startup investment platform, with 76 startups in Kathmandu.
Startup Ranking Kathmandu. 51 results.
Facebook Pages. The directory of Facebook pages, hilariously silly to navigate but it can for example give you suggestions of similar pages after “liking” one. Facebook is still the first choice for a web presence in Nepal, so you can potentially find every public startup here.
Company registration database by the Office of the Company Registrar. This is an amazing datasource, availablefor download in CSV and ML formats. Of course it only includes the already established businesses (not necessarily of all the small startups and freelancers operating in the informal economy until they know they can make it).
Google Maps. This is probably the largest business directory for Kathmandu now. You can search for a type of business, or browse through the map at the highest zoom level to see all entries it has. When a business has a website, it will usually be listed in the record. Facebook pages are not listed though, probably since Google is not allowed to datamine Facebook pages
OpenStreetMap. Not really a business directory, but it still has many larger and smaller businesses in the map. But as just a name, so you have to search for their websites yourself.
Entrepreneurs for Nepal. A Facebook group for discussing business in Nepal. Not that useful as they have a policy that forbids promoting your own business. But you can look at the Facebook profiles of participants.
IT Entrepreneurs for Nepal. A large Facebook groups with discussions and announcements for digital entrepreneurs in Nepal.
Sriyog. A business directory for mostly professional and handicrafts service providers. See also their Facebook page.
Nepal Innovation Lab Innovation Atlas. A map of innovation support spaces, makerspaces and organizations in Kathmandu valley. (All processed for the list above.)
Backstreet Academy Kathmandu. A list of “local experiences” on offer for travelers to buy into.
HamroKatha. A news site for positive news from Nepal, often running stories about startups.
MeroHostel. A site that allowed to find the best hostels in Kathmandu; no longer live at merohostel.com so the link goes to archive.org, where you can still browse the site.
nLocate. Allows to search for businesses in Nepal and for ATMs and all other stuff that has a location.
Catchy Road. A business directory for Nepal.
YPNepal.com. Another business directory for Nepal.
Nepal Entrepreneurs’ Hub. An incubator / startup support program.
Farmers Market at Le Sherpa and Yellow House. One of the largest (or the largest?) market in Kathmandu where people sell all kinds of artisanal and local food products. Obviously mostly an offline research option, but a good one. Said to gather around 50 vendors.
And another one happening at Yellow House by the same organizer is said to gather around 25 (see).
coworker.com for Nepal. A list of basically all co-working spaces in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Patan. All of these spaces have already been added to the list above.
Stock Photography Nepal. A platform to connect photographers in Nepal and their work. They don’t seem to sell anything but maintain a large community of >16,000 members in the Stock Photography Nepal Facebook group. Which is a good place to find businesses in Nepal in the creative industries. See also their Facebook page.

jeremyboom8 · January 17, 2019, 5:18pm

Dear Matthias, could you add Nasreen Sheikh and her startup Local Womens Handicrafts to your list? https://locwom.org/

These two are great videos Nasreen and her story: LWH Nepal on Vimeo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjrxGZTDsWw

matthias · January 31, 2019, 11:32pm

Of course I added her initiative (no. 60 in the list now)! It’s a perfect fit for the list Didn’t know them yet, thank you for the input.

aayush00 · November 25, 2019, 6:44am

Hello @matthias I was going through your post and the list of startups you’ve mentioned. I would like to introduce you to my startup as well. It’s called Sama Pencils and we make pencils from recycled newspaper. We are a very young company and thus have an online presence which has just started out in the last few days. You can find the facebook and instagram pages @sama.pencils. It would be great if you could help me gain some traction through your posts and if my company could make it to your list too. I can confirm that our business does comply with the requirements that you’ve mentioned. I hope to hear from you soon, have a nice day

matthias · November 25, 2019, 10:02am

@aayush00: thank you for introducing your startup here Of course I add you to the list – it’s no. 160 now.

It seems to me that a collaboration of you guys and Bhav Products could be a win-win situation. Maybe just ask. Their brand is about made-in-Nepal notebooks and other paperware items, with good designs … I really like them!

aayush00 · November 28, 2019, 10:43am

for sure…that’s something i have been considering myself, i am a big fan of their products too. and thank you for the mention too

eclipse1 · November 26, 2024, 8:14pm

hi @matthias, could you add Mad Honey Nepal led by tourism entreprenuer prashanna from Lamjung where is working on it to promote the adventure seekers and working on trekking trails and lipey peak.