The biggest fellowship of Uganda's innovators, Startups and entrepreneurs, the "Uganda Innovation Week" took this week's center stage from 22 - 24th November, 2022.
Previously, Kampala Innovation Week, the event recently underwent a major rebrand to include participants from across the entire country, acting as an intersection of ideas with opportunities, perseverance with recognition and startup founders with money and pledges of money.
Speaking of perseverance, Steve Jobs during one of his interviews spoke of the hustle of Startup founders, saying; "I'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful ones is pure perseverance."
Organized by Startup Uganda, the Uganda Innovation Week rewarded this true perseverance and gave startups the opportunities to persevere even more.
The event ran under the theme; Uganda’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Unlocking The Missing Links.
Despite the level of growth of the startup ecosystem here in Uganda, there are still a number of gaps to bridge in order to ensure the development of viable, market-ready enterprises and the ability of relevant stakeholders to adequately support said enterprises.
This article gives center stage the startups that participated, those that stood out, some new developments in the country's tech/startup field, and of course, where and how we can improve. So let's cut to the chase.
Here are some of the startups that exhibited at the event;
gnuGrid CRB Limited
The startup collects credit data on individuals and non-individual borrowers, validate data into meaningful profiles that are disseminated in form of credit reports and credit scores to enable credit providers make informed lending decisions.
Zofi Cash
A digital financial platform taking care of your employees’ financial emergencies before payday.
KaCyber Security Technologies Ltd
Operates in mobile communication and electronic commerce, building apps that have the potential to change the lives of people through establishing a connection between people and businesses they care about.
Imani Technology
They built the Imani contactless card, a smart networking card built to offer individuals and businesses the ability to network SMART.
Walimi Katale
An online fresh, organic & dry produce and groceries store. Delivery done with fast and Ecofriendly Electric Motorcycles.
Einstein Rising
Einstein Rising is a full-service social enterprise ecosystem builder actively leveraging social entrepreneurship as a tool in the hands of young people to build the future they want to see.
Easy Matatu
Easy Matatu is a platform that is connecting commuters to convenient, reliable, safe and clean public transport.
Zetu Africa
A sustainable product design company whose profit improves access to Basic Education, and Climate Action through tree conservation.
Ecoplastile Inc
EcoPlastile is a waste management, construction and a social enterprise that addresses the challenges of urban waste management (plastic pollution), indecent housing, health problems caused by dirty floors, chronic youth unemployment, deforestation and climate change.
Humura Therapy
Humura Therapy offers 24/7 free access to lincensed, trained, professional, experienced and accredited psychologists, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers and counsellors.
Other startups include the following;
Sumic IT Solutions
Sharebility Uganda
Mara Agribusiness
The Bountiful Duuka
Trampo Technologies
Aramah Coffee
Volcano Coffee
Kibajjo Enterprises
Hi-Innovator
One of the highlights of the event was the launch of the women NSSF Hi Innovator Accelerator Academy, a subsidiary of the NSSF Hi Innovator program in partnership with Mastercard foundation and Outbox Hub.
The program is a win for all women innovators in the country.
“We set a goal of creating 132000 working opportunities for young people, through our NSSFHiInnovator program. Of these, 70% are targeted for women. We started at 27%, and then grew to 45%. To scale it up to out target of 70%, we want to support at least 100 women led businesses by next year," Richard Zulu, a founding partner at Outbox Hub said.
The NSSF Hi-Innovator seeks to give visibility to small and growing businesses so as to help them secure seed funding, receive technical assistance and build partnerships for their growth.
Under the Hi-Innovator initiative, NSSF and its partners will link potentially profitable and sustainable businesses that can drive positive social change and returns to investments with funding of up to Uganda Shillings 75 Million.
A business must meet certain criteria to be eligible for the program including being registered under NSSF, having been in operation for more than 2 years, with a profit of at least 10m ugx and 50% of your employees need to be below 35 years of age.
Sidenote for Entrepreneurs or startups
🔸Conduct a competitor analysis
🔸Know how to describe the value you bring
🔸Practice pitching your business
Need for local investment
On funding for for Ugandan startups, it was noted that innovators are very good at attracting investor money but not at venture capital. Vanessa Mbaziira, a financial advisor said that understanding the whole space of venture capital is very important, right from the language, to what is expected of a founder.
"Venture capital is money that is invested in a project that has a high element of risk. Because of the high-risk element, investors usually expect a high ROI from your project.” Legesi, an Angel investor said.
He added that there isn’t much local capital, but if Uganda is going to grow its ecosystem, all stakeholders need to catalyze local capital and encourage local investors to join the game.
However, efforts to make this happen are underway.
"There’s a mismatch between what innovators are asking for and how much local investors can offer. Plus, local investors do not understand the concept of angel investing. Right now, we are educating our local angels, and there’s progress," he said.
On women in tech
Getting more and more women to participate in the technology space has been one of the flagship goals of the 21st century. And yet, much more still needs to be done.
On a panel discussion on making innovation and entrepreneurship work for women, Susan Asiimwe ascertains that; "Most of the startups that are making it in the ecosystem are tech-oriented. However, because women are still underrepresented in STEM, their startups are not likely to be as successful as men's."
The panel concluded that there's a serious need to practically implement policies that skill women in stem and follow up to make sure these policies are actually implemented on the ground.
"Most women do not participate in things to do with tech, because they do not have the skills. However, what they have is the survival skills of maneuvering technology, even when they are illiterate," another panel discussant, Kiconco Rebecca remarked.
Earlier in the Innovation Week, the women NSSF Hi Innovator Accelerator Program was launched.
The Awards
Sumic IT Solutions won overall startup of the year award and the startup of the year in the tech category. Sumic is a digital transformation consultancy and software development agency that provides cutting edge engineering solutions, helping companies, start-up enterprises and enterprise clients untangle complex issues that always emerge during their digital evolution journey.
Sharebility Uganda won the startup of the year award in the education sector. Sharebility Ug is a digital library crowd sourcing a vast pool of free open education resources plus premium content on sale.
Ezy Agric took home the startup of the year award in agriculture. Ezy Agric deals with information and service delivery to enhance small holder farmer' production and marketing activities through ICT and community based middle value chain actors.
Kreate Uganda was the winner of the startup of the year in the creative industries category.
My Musawo won the startup if the year in health. My Musawo, which is Luganda for “My Doctor”, is a mobile app that gives Ugandans access to quality health care information, services and products.
Stanbic Bank won the champion of the year in the private sector award.
Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) took home the champion of the year in public sector award.
Mastercard foundation was recognized for its efforts in the startup ecosystem as a development enabler.
Criticisms
The Uganda Innovation Week hasn't gone without it's fair share of disgruntlement. A review of the event by Digest Africa, a provider of data and insights on investment into African startups says the event was a "road to mediocrity paved by pretenders".
In the not-so-kind article titled "The Uganda Innovation Week Was a Joke," retired founder, and now Editor-in-Chief at Digest Africa, Jonathan Ntege Lubwama rants at length how the "guardians of our startup ecosystem" can not keep getting away with doing the bare minimum.
Lubwama elucidates on three important points;
1. The organizers need to decide if they are holding an innovation week or an SME summit.
2. Bigger is not always better
He writes; "The demand for bigger could be what drove the organizers to invite sponsors on board that turned what was supposed to be an innovation week into an NSSF Hi-innovator/JICA/Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESO) Week."
3. The topics, panelists, and moderators were mainly underwhelming.
Lubwama also goes ahead to suggest remedies to the ailments of the Uganda Innovation Week.
To read the full review, click HERE.
