Ugandan startup wins big at Harvard Business School competition

Agro Supply, a Ugandan agricultural startup led by Ogwal Joseph, has won the New Venture startup competition organized by Harvard Business School.

The competition, with a prize pool of up to US$55,000, offered entrepreneurs aiming to make an impact across Africa the opportunity to showcase innovative solutions to pressing challenges.

Ogwal represented Agro Supply at the event in Boston, USA, where he successfully pitched his innovation to a panel of judges, winning a prize of $32,000.

The New Venture Competition is part of the annual Africa Business Conference and is hosted by the Africa Business Club, a student-run organization at Harvard Business School.

Joseph is the Founder and CEO of Agro Supply, a company addressing critical problems faced by rural smallholder farmers, such as access to markets and finance. Agro Supply has developed the first mobile layaway system in East Africa to help farmers build savings and buy seeds and fertilizer. Since 2017, Agro Supply has worked with more than 5,000 farmers in Uganda through its bankless savings program. Joseph is an alumnus of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program, the Young African Leaders Initiative, and a 2018 Swedish Institute Management Programme Africa Fellow.

Each year, the New Venture Competition serves as a premier platform for showcasing the achievements of African entrepreneurs and fostering meaningful dialogue about the continent’s business landscape. The conference attracts global investors, industry experts, and innovators keen to explore Africa’s burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem.

This is not Agro Supply’s first win. On August 24, 2018, during Seedstars Kampala, Agro Supply Uganda Limited won the Uganda round of Seedstars World and represented the country at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland to compete for up to USD 1 million in equity investment.