Uganda Innovation Week Day 3

 The focus of the last day was a discussion on Investment and Funding. 

The Team From JICA facilitated the bulk of the discussions that took place in the earlier part of the morning. There was a focus on the NINJA program or what is fully known as the Next Innovation with Japan. The event was created at first to foster intergovernmental cooperation between the Government of Uganda and that of Japan. The emphasis was on the creation of partnerships and the possibility of building a stronger Ugandan Ecosystem. It was noted that there is great possibility in partnerships between Ugandans and the Japanese with Uganda’s young population (80% below the age of 25) and Japan’s rapidly ageing population. 

JICA is in 150 countries out of the 195 that make up the world. So far therevhas been a global support of about $15 Billion. About $750 Million to Uganda. The key word in JICA philosophy is Trust. 

It was noted with great delight that Uganda was second place in in terms of recorded interest in JICA projects such as NINJA where on a global scale Uganda registered a win for the startup competition that took place earlier. As far as the JICA team is concerned, Uganda is on the rise and should be included in the list of the big four! The research carried out by JICA showed that the bulk of interest and attention came from pre-seed and seed stages while there were very few Series A Rounds (which is usually the most attractive and income generating round). 

As a result out of the two cohorts that NINJA had the second cohort focused more on the growth stage. 

Three key areas were identified Capital Raised, Market Expansion and Scaling. 

Panel Topics and ideas

The panel discussions were split into four. 

• What technical support is relevant for growth stage startups?
• Attracting capital into Uganda’s Ecsosystem
• Scaling up circular Agribusiness in Uganda-from inspiration to action
• Venture capital fundinb in Uganda:What’s not giving and what are the solutions. 

Here there were rich conversations with Arnold Leon Mugagga of Zetu Africa as well as Andrew Lema of Easy Matatu. Both groups have benefitted from the fuding that came from JICA. $ 18,000 for Zetu that was used to facilitate growth into 9 cities and expansion and rapid development. The founder spoke of the importance of continuous imrovement and concept testing. Andrew Lema spoke about the transition from 8 vehicles to the process by which the company was able to expand its fleet and move away from the gig model. The gig model is the method by which, you for example take advantage of those who have vehicles and use them as agents who then go on towards handling their own businesses. Easy Matatu then moved on to a fleet if about 40 vehicles. They were also able to refine their business model, deal with the complexity of unit economics as well as the creation of a pilot. Easy Matatu also benefitted from a fund of $18,000.

Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives. 

MTIC the ministry was present in the discussion around attracting capital and emphasized that there are a number of relief funds that government has in place that are yet to be accessed. Only 12% of the funds have been accessed leaving about 88%. MTIC is tasked with the review, planning and strategy parts of overall planning as well as trade and industrialization. There are SME strstegy documents as well as Policy documents that exist and thst are being worked on. MTIC called for a three pronged approach that binds together Academia, Government and Industry. 

CK Japheth of Innovation village and MOTIV noted that it was a great transition to be moving from competitions to more of a focus on the growth stage. There was a call for more engagement around on national policy as well as the need for cooperation and collaboration this to the delight of the team from JICA. 

Chap Chap attracted $18,000 in funding from JICA while Ecoplastile generated $30,000 

Uganda Development Bank through its Equity Analyst suggested that there was a need to find more international partners, create greater market linkages as well as to seek partnership with local providers for example traditional health practitioners. 

Digest Africa with Jonathan Ntege Lubwama.

Digest Africa then presented their report and summary of the Ecosystem. It was noted that sometimes, a single business (Chipper Cash App is responsible for the growth of the Ugandan Ecosystem and the numbers as they stand) can have an impact on the national performance and affect the numbers that have to do with investment. This is the case with Wave and Senegal. 

It was noted that the top four groups that are responsible for the bulk of the capital in Ugands are NIISP National ICT Initiatives Support Program, MTN and JICA. 

One of the challenges that were faced by Founders is that there was little knowldege about capital. It was too easy to go to every fund and expect funding from all sorts of programs. There was thus very little understanding of the game. There was a tendency not to stay in our own lanes. What exists today is a better support structure as well as a system where you can approach any bank for partnerships. 

What normally exists on the ground is investments sre normally made to high risk companies, with a high expectation of return as well as a sereis of rounds through which this funding is released. It was also recognized that there are gaps that need to be filled. These gaps between startups and funders are bieng filled by demystifying the funding process, helping the funders learn the importance of patience, creating a due diligence checklist as well as creating a mitigation strategy that simplifies the pitch that is delviered to the potential funder (great benefit has been found in the existance of an extensive databsse of investors. 

Founders were advised to mske sure that they clearly articulate what problem they are solving and what this means for the bigger picture.