Uganda is ranked among the top three countries with advanced technological and innovation capabilities in Africa, according to a study conducted by Martin Prosperity Institute of the US.

With the ‘no movement’ lockdown now in place, Kikubolane takes a look at the innovative startups that are likely to help customers and businesses go through this difficult time and beyond.

Med X International

MedX is a Ugandan medical technology company with a mission to enable health information systems of deliver more value to users, clients and stakeholders. Currently the company is focussed on transforming how clinical testing laboratories work in Africa with its flagship cloud-based laboratory information management system called LabXpert, which was developed in response to management and client service requirements for TB and COVID-19 testing.

Med X International automatically retrieves real time medical results. Med X has tested over 100,000 samples with an average of 1000 tests per day at 6 testing laboratories.

Yunga

 Yunga is a local rescue digital network that connects neighbour to neighbour and neighbour to police in case of an attack or emergency in the shortest time possible. This service protects 1,500 lives in three areas around Kampala (Kigowa Ntinda, Kiwatule and Kabulengwa Nansana) using low cost tools (Yunga device) and also reaches over 700,000 people through law and enforcement education.

It won the HiiL (Hague Institute for Innovation of Law) 2018 Innovating Justice Challenge for Kampala in 2018. Yunga was founded by Maurice Muzini, a software developer and currently lead data scientist at Tactical Infinity limited.

Bringo fresh

Bringo Fresh is an e-commerce platform that bridges Ugandan farmers and technology making their fresh produce available online for doorstep delivery. It was launched onto the Ugandan market in June, 2018 by CEO and founder Brian Matsiko. The platform sources Fresh produce from small-holder farmers, and delivers to customers’ door steps. The fresh produce that Bringo Fresh deals in include fruits, vegetables, fish and meat among others. 

Bringo fresh says it has managed to save the wastage of over 12,000 kgs of vegetables, fruits and dairy products. The supplies are delivered all over Kampala, Entebbe & Wakiso daily from 8am to 6pm

Rocket Health

Rocket Health is an integrated telemedicine technology platform for insurance members designed to support chat, voice and video consultations with a Doctor, pharmacy deliveries, lab sample pickups & tests, connected medical devices and an eShop

Rocket Health’s telemedicine modeled package as a benefit under insurance cover allows a member to get monthly follow up by voice/video call, wellness SMS messaging and updated patient record. Pharmacy refills, lab samples collection for routine tests are done at one’s preferred location and physical reviews are on an appointment. This improves the member’s experience, clinical outcomes and reduces cost for the insurance companies through a reduction in-clinic consultation costs over prescription/testing.

Rocket Health was launched in August 2018 following feedback from users of its Tele-health platforms. This gave birth to the Rocket Health telemedicine clinic, mobile laboratory and medicine delivery services which currently serve Kampala population. Rocket Health through its telemedicine services is already supporting the Uganda Ministry of Health with remote teleconsultations for the population.

Xente

Xente is an e-commerce and financial services business established in 2017 by Allan Rwakatungu and his co-founders, to connect African businesses and consumers to the digital global economy. The company boasts of over 50,000 subscribers across the continent with a 50% growth rate per month and targets to onboard 1,500 Micro and Medium Sized Enterprise (MMEs) merchants while paying special focus will be paid to women and youth lead enterprises.

The platform handles all sorts of non-cash payments ranging from mobile money to card payments such as Visa and MasterCard to pay for goods and services wherever in the world and pay utility bills. The Xente App can also be used to get loans, book tickets, buy airtime as well as doing online sales of goods and services. Selected as one of the 45 startups having the best chance of hitting the Ugandan, African and global market by The National ICT Initiatives Support Program (NIISP), 2021, it qualified for a budget boost to enable them refine and complete their innovations.

Kanzu code

Kanzu Code consists of a team of developers and is developing solutions by building inclusive financial tools for businesses, individuals and communities. Their goal is to empower the under and unbanked, some of whom are working in Saccos and other operations that allow them to start thinking of saving and investment.

Kanzu Code offers a number of tools for businesses, individuals and communities including Kanzu Banking (a software that empowers seamless management of portfolios using reliable, user-friendly mobile technology), Kanzu Money (which allows for sending money from one mobile operator to another).

Tubayo

Tubayo is a travel marketplace that provides affordable travel adventure experiences which has made sales of over $50,000 with more than 4500 travel experiences. According to founders, Tubayo is a loose slang to mean ‘We are everywhere.’ Tubayo offers three part tourism services i.e.; the destinations, destination activities and the accommodation which includes temporarily renting private homes, hotels, lodges, guesthouses and apartments one can stay in while in a particular area.

The platform also gives people an opportunity to create and host their own experiences known as the ‘Tubayo Experience’ where an individual, group of people creates their own account which enables them to list the services they can offer to travelers whether it is accommodation of a private room, guest house, apartment, or even offer experiences like photography, cooking classes, yoga and dancing, hikes, water rafting, bungee jumping and many others.

Ensibuuko

Ensibuuko is a fintech startup that provides cloud-based micro-finance & insurance software as well as mobile money apps. Ensibuuko was founded by Gerald Otim and Opio David in 2012 to offer a better way of delivering financial services to microfinance entities. These entities and savings communities make use of the startup’s software called Mobis to automate their data, processes and payments.

The result is improved efficiency, reduced costs and increased transparency for a SACCO; a simpler, convenient and safer way for un-banked and under-served populations to access financial services. Ensibuuko is as an anchor partner for Leveraging Last Mile Distribution Networks with Mobipay in the first Innovation Challenge in August 2020 by Startup Uganda in partnership with UNCDF Uganda.

Minute 5

Minute 5 is an e-Commerce platform which offers an online grocery market place that brings together vendors and customers by providing clients with a shopping experience at their fingertips and having the items ordered delivered to their door steps in real time. Minute5 has delivered their services to over 500 customers through working directly with 22 vendors and small scale farmers enabling sales of $10,000 in transactions.

KAINO Africa

This is a web and mobile app that was developed to teach children how in 1 month while at home during this lockdown where pre-primary schools have been indefinitely closed in Uganda.

KAINO is an integrated multi-channel learning program that’s designed to ensure that millions of nursery school-going children get access to quality curriculum-aligned STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) blended lesson guides that parents and teachers can use to deliver lessons using our web and mobile applications.

Trained over 420 rural women in adult literacy so that they can train their own children, trained and employed over 24 rural nursery teachers to continue teaching nursery children in the rural areas, trained over 1,200 children how to read and write. We currently have over 500 users of our free trial product.

ChapChap Africa

ChapChap is a digital fintech introducing new digital business lines into the day-to-day trade of MSMEs creating reliable financial profiles that open doors to credit opportunities for them to scale their businesses. ChapChap offers a digital payments solution that can centralize all mobile money transactions. Users are able to transact over MTN or Airtel money on a single platform thanks to ChapChap.

Patasente

Patasente is an online supply chain financing platform that enables people lend to growing businesses. Entrepreneurs get working capital loans against purchase orders and invoices. Lenders finance them by buying interest bearing promissory notes to earn solid returns. Patasente serves over 300 accounts and operates when entrepreneurs make a purchase through a commercial agent called a Factor who would buy and pay their suppliers cash on delivery, and then supply them on favorable credit terms.

Eco Plastile

A platform that allows thousands of slum dwellers to collect and use waste plastics as a form of financial resource in exchange for medical services and uses an innovative, chemical-free and energy-efficient technology called “waxy 2 technology”. Collected waste plastics are transformed into plastic poles, lumbers and tiles which replaces expensive wooden timbers. This reduces plastic plus marine pollution, deforestation rates, and the effects of climate change while improving access to health facilities especially for marginalized communities. The service Eco-plastile offers has impacted up to 200 lives to date and with just 7 employees, has managed to raise over $500.

Nimarungi

Nimarungi is solving the problem of education inequality caused by a lack of data leading to uninformed decisions and policies affecting the marginalized youths and children. This is solved through collecting data with the use of Open Data Kit (ODK) which is a free open source, accurate, quick, offline, and at scale data collection tool. It utilizes paper surveys in case of phone blackouts, peer, interviews, and other sources to collect data. This data is analyzed and expressed as a response to stakeholders.

Nimarungi also advises stakeholders on the areas that need more focus, then it proposes for the redirection of funds to the right people which in the end influences informed decision making and policies. It then goes ahead to make a follow up on the impact caused by the research made, response, and feedback given.

Swipe2Pay

swipe2pay is a payment solutions company, that empowers SME’s to accept both card and mobile money as a mode of payment and not only to accept payments but also make sense of their sales data, to have quick access to loans. Swipe2pay offers merchants a choice of mobile card readers that connect to their smart phone/tablet allowing them to accept payments quickly and simply. The solution goes beyond payment processing in that it includes a free point-of-sale app and a free business intelligence portal, enabling business owners to monitor store performance.

According to Solomon Kitumba, the founder and head of products, Swipe2Pay offers a mobile point of sale that helps SMEs to sell smarter cashlessly and manage their businesses better.

Zoora

Zoora is a digital edutech platform providing digital education in finance, business development, smart agriculture, climate change. They provide rural women farmers to manage their farm records, savings, and more with the use of the Digital Data Management System available on Zoora. It improves the productivity of women and their financial status via increased financial knowledge, fostering economic sustainability in rural communities and they provide a host of skills to women and assist users in storing their valuable data.

ProInterns

Launched in August 2016, ProInterns connects students and graduates in Uganda to internship, placement and entry-level opportunities with leading organisations and impactful start-ups. The platform empowers young people to kick start their careers through links to opportunities providing meaningful work (SDG8) and to boost skills development. ProInterns has over 2000 users and has enabled them to connect with over 150 employers available on their platform. ProInterns was founded by Vaness Atim.

Famunera

This is an Agri-Tech/E-commerce platform that links smallholder farmers to genuine quality affordable farm agricultural inputs and provides support service to buyers of farm produce. Famunera serves over 110,000 farmers, 150 agribusinesses and has created over 5,000 indirect jobs across the entire agriculture value-chain in Uganda through their technology. It has enabled sales of $15M for their farmer community which is predominantly youth through the use of digital (USSD, Web App and Call Center) marketplace that sources for genuine quality affordable farm inputs and also provide convenient last-mile delivery within 24 hours to farmers across Uganda.

Famunera is a creation of a team of 5 members: Naika Enock Julius, Ojema Joel, Nammanda Lydia, Besufekad Shifferaw ,Odongkara Frank and three advisors.

Marula Agribusiness

Marula an Agribusiness that transforms waste into high quality livestock feed.  The company operations are run by Tomie Hooft, chief executive officer, Boby Ogwang, Chief Operations officer, Phillip Straub, Chief Technical Officer, Martin Tenywa (farm operations), Zainah Nampija (animal scientist), Ludivine (sustainability) and Lutwama Vincent (safety). Through the waste recycling industry, Marula Agribusiness says it has has managed to clean cities, scale upto 800 outgrower farmers and create jobs.

Tripxio

Tourism operator platform Tripxio enables small and medium businesses in the tourism sector digitize their operations, package new and existing offers, create e-commerce websites, accept payments and efficiently run their businesses in this sector.

Tripxio operations are run by David Gonahasa in charge of Sales and customer acquisition, Arnold Babaasa, chief technical Officer and Mahmoud Saeed, creative director.

Tripxio says it has enabled more than 27 tourism entrepreneurs to maximize their opportunities in the industry and provided job opportunities directly to over 8 SMEs as agents.