The entrepreneurship scene in Africa gets more and more exciting each and every passing day. Those that follow the happenings will agree with that statement. This is partly due to the fact that most African youths see more potential in stepping out of their comfort zones and build a startup rather than sitting back and wait for the governments to handle the biting unemployment.
This wave has swept across all the regions of the continent - though not in equal magnitudes. Yet, the regions that are lagging behind aren't sitting back. They're doing whatever they can to catch up with their peers as fast as possible.
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Unveiling the Bureau to the public[/caption]
In this particular case, we focus on Uganda. It is still not among the top 5 destinations for investors and still lacks a couple of "top class" startups to its name that have stretched beyond its borders and getting everyone across the continent talking. Some people attribute this to the fact that there's no ecosystem in the country, those who are trying to do something are doing it alone, plus the fact that the government is doing little - if any - to help the situation at hand.
Yet, there are still key individuals, organizations and institutions that have - despite the above challenges - stuck their necks out to help entrepreneurs and startup founders in the country. These have setup hubs/co-working spaces, lured investors into the country as well as inspired startup founders to keep going when they feel like its not worth it anymore.
One of them is CK Japheth, Founder of The Innovation Village, who recently contacted us about their newly established facility - The Bureau. In a lengthy conversation, he was able to reveal to us the intentions of the facility and why they have decided to open it just alongside the already existing co-working facility which houses early stage startups, wantprenuers and freelancers.
The Bureau accommodates partners to the Innovation Village which Japheth believes will establish a collaborating environment between the already established entrepreneurs, investors, accelerators, startups, wantprenuers as well as key thought leaders in the ecosystem. This is something that has been really missing in the equation.
For example, Allan, founder of Intel World, that recently relocated to The Bureau was working from Kanjokya street. But, his neighbors were law and architecture firms that he may need to interact with but not on a daily basis as compared to being near Andela, Ace Capital as well as freelancers as is the case now with being at The Bureau.
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Evelyn Namara's !nnovate relocated to The Bureau[/caption]
Some of the partners/startups that have moved into The Bureau already include Andela, Enventure Enterprises, Milima Technologies, Britech limited, Kola Studios, Panya, Innovate mart, Leo Africa Institute, Open sustainability institute, Intel world, Challenges worldwide and Ace Capital. Those yet to relocate include FinAfrica and others that we shall communicate when we get an update.
When you closely look at the above list, you can easily tell the variety in expertise as well as industries. Each of them has their own strengths as well as weaknesses - which when brought together can be a game-changer for the Ugandan eco-system. On top of the partners, The Bureau also houses an in-house tech team for The Innovation Village which it outsources to individuals as well as organizations in a project dubbed The challenge driven accelerator. The team is called SOLVE!
Apart from The Bureau, The Innovation Village has developed a couple of "arms" each with the sole purpose of solving a pain point in the ecosystem. This is aimed at ensuring that a startup can access everything at one place. Look at it as establishing a one-stop "Silicon Valley" where you can get investors, talent to employ, mentors and everything an entreprenuer may need. It started with setting up Labs like Media, Climate Change, FinTech, Agri-Business, EdTech and Health labs. On top of these, they established Kampala Angel Investors Network.
The Innovation Village as a business got funding from an undisclosed foreign angel investor to setup shop. Just like any other business, the facility has to become profitable in order to remain self-sustaining in the future. The Village is looking for further funding to enable it scale its operations in order to achieve the profitability goal. This is very crucial for them given the fact that some very promising hubs across the continent have closed shop in the recent past for failure to secure funding for their operations.
Given that none of the very many arms established by the innovation village has turned a profit yet, the question we have is whether they're expanding at a pace that maybe difficult to sustain in the long-run or they're on the right track. Time will tell!