Rwanda - East Africa's Gem 💎

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Welcome back! Last week we had a little break to live in the present in Nairobi. This week we’re back in full force, and covering Rwanda.

In case you missed it, Prox Weekly is your 5 minute rundown on Africa’s tech scene. 7 minutes if you’re a slow reader 🐢

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An East African Gem 🇷🇼

This week we traveled to Rwanda and hosted another epic meetup.

If you came along, let me know if you enjoyed it on Twitter.

And If you want to come to our Lagos event in two weeks, sign up here.

Today, we’re diving into Rwanda’s tech ecosystem 🇷🇼

In the last 20 years, Rwanda has turned around from a brutal humanitarian disaster to building a home for innovation and startups in East Africa. It feels like I’m in Singapore.

And this edition, Jefferson Rumanyika - a Rwandan entrepreneur and a VC at Proximity Ventures will be giving us the rundown.

Jefferson has seen Rwanda’s ecosystem develop since Day 1, and in a past life he was a food critic for The East African.

This week, Jefferson will be telling us about how Rwanda is becoming a hotbed for Africa’s tech scene, the history of the ecosystem and the key players.

Read until the end for the best restaurant recommendations in town 👀

Caleb: How does Rwanda’s ecosystem stack up to the rest of Africa?

Rwanda’s tech ecosystem has trailed its East African peers Kenya and Uganda in the last decade - but the tides are shifting.

After years of stifled growth, generally being ignored by the global tech ecosystem and investor community, the ecosystem is finally finding its footing.

The new formidable innovation hubs, young startups and a buzzing community of founders, ecosystem builders, operators and investors are creating a vibrant ecosystem.

Caleb: Okay, so it sounds like there has been a lot of movement in the last few years. Let’s have a throw back to the old days - how did Rwanda’s tech ecosystem start and develop?

The history of Rwanda’s tech ecosystem traces back to just one watering hole.

Starting at the top, it was forged by students who had just graduated from Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) from the early to late 2000’s.

Tech graduates started new companies to build solutions for the government through public tenders.

They came together to form collectives of founders, which became a self-supporting system that would become foundational for Rwanda’s tech ecosystem.

The turning point for the ecosystem was in 2012, when Knowledge Lab (kLab) - the first innovation hub in Rwanda - began.

Caleb: It sounds like kLab was the start of the ecosystem’s growth. What is kLab, and how has it impacted the ecosystem?

kLab was the brainchild of Clement Uwajeneza, Patrick Kabagema, Alex Ntale, Carlos Mwizerwa, Claude Migisha, Elie Gatete Magambo, Atshushi Yamanaka , Michel Bezy , Nicholas Pottier and Eric Newcomer.

It quickly got the Government and the Private Sector’s support, with the Rwanda Development Board and the Rwanda ICT Chamber funding the space and partnering with kLab.

When I went to kLab’s office for the first time, it was the equivalent of a kid going to Disneyland. I encountered hundreds of tech enthusiasts, wannabe entrepreneurs and startups and we would often meet there to nerd out on software and hardware together.

The tech ecosystem grew steadily, but also slowly transformed the country’s growth.

kLab became a focal point of the ICT ecosytem, creating hundreds of jobs for its members, and spawning success stories like transportation startup AC Group - which built Tap&Go (the equivalent of London’s Oyster Card) and has facilitated 298 million journeys in the country.

Caleb: What is it like building a startup in Rwanda? And which funds and accelerators are active in the ecosystem?

In 2010, before kLab, it was difficult to access support and incubation as a startup.

The only funding and and support for startups were competitions like Africa Innovation Prize and short courses skills training from the government through the Rwanda Development Board.

And when the first batch of accelerators started in Rwanda, they didn’t have a great time..

kLab, the first incubator for tech startups, was moderately successful. But, it had a limited follow through and did not invest in startups after the program.

Think by Millicom in 2014 was the country’s first ‘accelerator,’ but it closed down barely a year into starting.

Venture funds struggled, too.

Funds that made forays into the investing ecosystem - like Thousand Hills Venture Fund in 2004 and later Sobek Capital in 2018 - closed down or pivoted to other industry verticals.

The next generation of incubators were offshoots of the Rwanda ICT Chamber and included:

• Leapr Labs, a deep tech incubator for applied research, which launched in 2017

• 250 Startups, a multi-partner incubator and accelerator hub, launched in 2018

• Fablab, a fabrication laboratory to support hardware innovators in Rwanda.

And in the last year, accelerators, funds and communities have really picked up. We’ve seen an explosion of activity, like:

• HealthTech Hub, a healthtech accelerator powered by Novartis Foundation, in 2021

• Katapult Africa, an AgTech accelerator by impact investor Katapult VC, launched in 2021

• FinTech Hub, a virtual fintech accelerator for Rwandan startups launched in 2021.

• Jasiri, a startup growth accelerator by Allan Gill Gray Philanthropy, 2021

• Founder Institute, the Silicon Valley Tech Accelerator, which launched in Rwanda in 2022.

• Norrsken Foundation, which launched a Rwandan hub built for 1,000 entrepreneurs (and armed with a $100m fund for Africa)

• Startups in Rwanda, who run killer events for hundreds of Rwandan founders - like last night’s.

Caleb: Damn - that is a lot of activity, and very quickly. It seems like everyone is moving to Rwanda. Why do you think that is?

Rwanda is positioning itself as a tech and innovation hub, and the Rwandan Government has more goodwill than any other country in the continent.

It has a special taskforce for Innovation and Emerging Technologies at the Ministry of ICT, and has mnimised red tape from beauracracy and policies.

Rwanda is also positioning itself as the country for startups to pilot in, and test their innovation in Africa.

One of the most recent successes is Zipline - a US drone company which piloted blood delivery in Rwanda in 2016, and has scaled this across Africa and in the US.

In June 2021, they raised $250 million at a $2.7 billion valuation. Startups that want to test products in Africa are following the money (and innovation), and moving to Rwanda.

Caleb: Cheers Jefferson! And for the readers who are in/plan to visit Rwanda, what are your top three restaurants recommendations?

1. Poivre Noir - The best grilled beef fillet and burgers in Kigali.

2. Soy Asian Table - If you’re like Thai Green Curry, this is where to go.

3. Kurry Kingdom - For the best Tandoori Chicken in the country.

Thanks for reading!

Soon, we will be launching a Part Two on Rwanda - which will explore the people behind the country’s tech ecosystem what the future holds for innovation country.

And if you want one of these dope t-shirts, sponsored by Daba finance, refer a few of your friends 👀

Until next week!