There are many reasons innovators and entrepreneurs may lose everything they worked so hard for — personality clashes, mishandled finances, poor decision-making, or bad luck. The question is, when you’re faced with those dilemmas, what do you do?

In this article, we outline the story of Peter Nduati, who lost it all, but didn’t give up. He fought and clawed his way back and became stronger.

Who is Peter Nduati?

Not much is known about his early life. However, an article by Business daily and his profile on LinkedIn indicates that Nduati, a serial entrepreneur, was brought up in Dagoretti by a single mother in a family of six.

He did most of his schooling in schools within Dagoretti. He then attended Punjabi University in India, then went to Scotland for his Master’s degree in economics.. He later went to the UK to get certified as a Chartered Insurer.

The Rise of Peter Nduati’s Business Empire

Before having a successful business, he had four failed businesses. The first business was a hair salon, and the second was a grooming service for KTN news anchors. He made his first million from this business.

However, it failed because he was still employed full-time and did not give the business the attention it needed. The third business to flop was real estate, and the fourth was a marketing company called Consumer Benchmark.

After four failed attempts, he managed to raise Sh 40 million in capital from his family and two angel investors to bankroll his idea of the insurance firm.

He later founded Resolution Insurance Company in 2002 and grew tremendously to become a household name in the insurance company.

According to Nduati, the resolution was so successful as it targeted an under-served market at the time – women.

A publication by Business Daily reports that Turnover for the first year was $1 million from 3,000 members and topped $3 million in the second year.

Growth averaged 50 percent annually until 2008, when post-election violence pushed the company into the red.

The success of his insurance company locally saw him expand to Tanzania, where he established Tanzania resolution Insurance in collaboration with other partners.

Other Business Ventures

He owns/is associated with other businesses other than Resolution Insurance. They include Brown Oak Limited, Trueblaq Group – Experiential marketing company, Pine Creek Holdings, Absolute Security and Centric Air Ambulance.

Fall of Peter Nduati’s Business Empire

Six years after its establishment and being to the mountaintop, everything careened off the rails.

In 2007, Nduati’s Resolution Insurance was hit by an unprecedented challenge when the country was plunged into violence following the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

This was the beginning of his empire’s decline, but the major blow came in 2016 when the sector changed its regulations, moving from human share capital to risk-based regulations.

Based on the Insurance Regulatory Authority’s assessment, the Kenyan Resolution Insurance and the Tanzanian Resolution Insurance companies were established to be deficient in capital adequacy.

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The lack of capital injection saw the company struggle to survive in the industry. In 2021, it was reported that Resolution insurance made an underwriting loss of Sh457 million.

The company faced its last major setback in March 2022 when auctioneers visited its offices and took everything.