Over the past four years, UNCDF has worked alongside Startup Uganda to strengthen the startup and digital innovation ecosystem in Uganda. This support was rooted in the understanding that digital innovators and entrepreneurs are a strong source of scalable solutions for community challenges in sectors like agriculture, finance, health, and education. In our early engagement with players and stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, it was clear that there was a need for support in creating an enabling environment where startups can access the services they need to start and grow. One of the issues that stood out then was that of a “fragmented ecosystem” – where actors did not really engage with each other, yet faced many common challenges. The idea of Startup Uganda was born from this context. As UNCDF, we are happy to have played a convening role over the last four years and are energised by the acheivements we have seen over time. While there is still a long journey ahead , Uganda’s startup ecosystem has come of age, and so has Startup Uganda.

Circa 2019. The innovation ecosystem in Uganda is just beginning to bud. We are still revelling in the definition as the most innovative economy in Africa but are eager for more tangible results in regard to viable, scalable startups in the market. The idea of Startup Uganda (SU) is born - an association of entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) working towards strengthening the startup support ecosystem. Convened by UNCDF, innovation enthusiasts and established members of the startup space, sit down to concretize what the association will look like and what its support to the ecosystem will entail.

“It wasn’t the first time something like this had been attempted within the Ugandan Startup ecosystem, but it was the first time we were able to utilize all the capabilities of people that have operated in the startup space for 10 years plus, and create something with tangible, sustainable impact,” says Jean K Makki, the Vice Chairperson of SU and Director at Circular Design Hub.

SU was birthed to create synergies among existing ESOs and foster collaboration around our shared goals of building and enabling work opportunities for Ugandan entrepreneurs. Over the past few years, the association’s journey has been paved with incredible achievements and some tough lessons. From less than ten members, we now boast of up to 30, many of whom have been able to strengthen and widen their service offerings through their membership.

The existence of SU over the last four years has proven, if nothing else, the power that comes from breaking the silos that entities tend to operate in. As ESOs that are part of the association we have joined forces on various programs and have been able to unlock more funding and reach more entrepreneurs than we would have individually. Some examples of these include the JICA Ninja Accelerator program that SU participated in, represented by Hive Colab, The Innovation Village and Outbox, who incubated and accelerated various startups leading to some, like Easy Matatu and Chap Chap, unlocking significant amounts of funding at a final pitch competition. Another recent example is the NSSF Hi-Innovator program that was championed by Outbox, with member ESOs such as Starthub Africa, Makerere Innovation & Incubation Centre, Women in Technology Uganda and SHONA providing pre-accelerator and capacity building activities for the entrepreneurs involved and unlocking about 20,000USD in funding for a shortlisted few. The initiative now has 11 ESOs working to create up-to 132,000 work opportunities for young people.

Another major achievement for the association has been its contribution towards important legislation that looks to better the innovation ecosystem. SU spearheaded efforts in 2021 to draft a Startup Act alongside the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives and private sector and development partners including Private Sector Foundation Uganda and MasterCard Foundation. A technical working group was formed and is currently in the process of conducting a regulatory impact assessment report that should be available before the end of Q2 2023.

Startup Uganda also has a seat on the Business Process Outsourcing Council that has drafted a policy which was recently reviewed at a stakeholders meeting in January 2023. The policy, once in operation, will ease issues around quality human resources within the innovation ecosystem with articles that speak directly to infrastructure development and personnel capacity building as they pertain to business process outsourcing systems.

While discussing evolution, it would be an oversight to ignore Kampala Innovation Week, now Uganda Innovation Week. From a small event hosted by one player in the innovation space to a three-day grand event, averaging attendance of 1000 people in total with an online reach of 10,000 and more, Startup Uganda has a strong sub-brand under its belt. The event rebranded to Uganda Innovation Week last year in an effort to include startups and innovations operating and thriving outside the perimeters of the capital city. Under the theme, 'Uganda’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Unlocking the Missing Links,' over ten partners, including UNCDF, NSSF Hi-innovator in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, International Trade Centre, Japanese International Cooperation Agency, The French Embassy, and Village Capital among others, joined forces for three days of panel discussions, exhibitions and pitch competitions. You can read the events’ reports at KIW 2020 and KIW 2021. Visit the official event website for more information; uiwug.com.

SU has also dedicated a significant amount of time and effort to building the capacity of its members in order to ensure more viable startups are scaling within the ecosystem. Village Capital conducted training on Impact Hypothesis and Understanding Funder mindset and ESO Diagnostic in 2022 which was attended by 12 out of 21 ESOs. Outbox & SHONA, alongside The NSSF Hi-Innovator also provided a capacity-building session to kickstart the year. The topics discussed included bootstrapping, revenue models, managerial accounting, investment, and investor relationships.

“One of the biggest benefits of my membership to Startup Uganda has been the opportunity to learn from those that have been in this space a lot longer than me. The goal is one, to better the entrepreneur and improve his capacity. Startup Uganda has afforded us the chance to do that collaboratively instead of competitively,” says Kenneth Twesigye, CEO and Founder of Techbuzz Hub.

Although SU's direct target audience is entrepreneurial support organizations, a number of the activities conducted are for the betterment of the individual entrepreneur. An innovation challenge hosted in partnership with UNCDF saw up to nine startups accelerated across three tracks including financial health, last mile distribution and digital skills. Over a rigorous three day boot camp, powered by United Social Ventures, Makerere Innovation and Incubation Centre, Starthub Africa and Iventure Africa, all members of SU, the nine teams presented their solutions in a pitch competition with three solutions emerging victorious, Backspace Ivy, Patasente and Famunera. You can read more about the innovation challenge here.

To develop the competencies and skills of Startups and make them more sustainable, SU has also conducted several capacity-building activities, such as the recently concluded Digital Skills Training in partnership with Google, Africa 118 Inc., and SU. With the help of Techbuzz Hub, an SU member, SU provided specialised digital training to shortlisted SMEs. Some topics covered included using data and insights to grow businesses and understanding the systems behind programs like Google my Business, Google Workspace and Gsuite. Here are a few testimonials from entrepreneurs that participated.

We are also redefining what the words ‘innovation’ and ‘startup’ mean for an ecosystem like ours, the debate here being, whether as an ecosystem our focus should be on only tech/high growth startups, or also include SME entrepreneurs. There are merits to either approach, but given where our ecosystem is, the tendency is to lean towards remaining accommodative of innovative (but non-tech) SMEs, even as the association works to define these terms more accurately and attract more VC funders.

As the relationship between UNCDF and Startup Uganda evolves and the association grows beyond UNCDF patronage, we would like to express deep gratitude for UNCDF’s support. As the first champions of the cause, the technical and financial support they provided helped Startup Uganda find its feet within the startup ecosystem and establish itself as a key implementer and thought leader in the sector. To commemorate the evolving of the relationship, here are some impact stories on how the startup scene has evolved over the past few years and what the future might look like.

We hear from members of the association, entrepreneurs who have seen considerable growth over the past few years and enablers who continue to foster innovation across the country.