There is so much bile about Rwanda being over-hyped but frankly speaking for a country that experienced a genocide that wiped close to a million citizens Rwanda is doing great. There is poverty in Rwanda don’t compare it with Norway or Finland but if they maintain the discipline instilled on them by Kagame. Rwanda will be the Switzerland of Africa in 30 years.
In Rwanda you will never see Bodas ferrying more than two beings, in Kenya sometimes upto 5 people hop on one motorcycle., There is no overlapping traffic like here in Kenya. People buckle up and motorcyclists and their clients wear helmets.
The other thing that is attracting foreign firms into Rwanda is the ease of setting up a company. There is minimal red tape compared to Kenya. That is why there are more startups there than in Kenya.
Why you may ask?
After the1994 genocide in Rwanda watu walimea akili na wakaanza kuheshimiana, secondly hawana katiba ya kifala kama hii ya Kenya where everything can be challenged with A FAKE COURT ORDER issued by a partisan judge depending on the prevailing political winds.
With over 5 startup hubs based in Kigali, several co-working spaces and numerous service providers focused on entrepreneurship and innovation, more startups are being born in Rwanda with the aim of providing solutions. Founder360° takes a look at just 5 rising startups from Rwanda worth knowing.
1. Bag Innovation
Bag Innovation is an EdTech and talent sourcing platform that combines AI and gamification to simulate virtual internships and bridge the gap between the academic and business sectors in Rwanda. Founded in 2017 by Gabriel Ekman and Yussouf Ntwali, the BAG (Building a Generation) platform serves as a learning tool for students while providing companies in need of talent with affordable insights, growth support and data collection.
According to the company, the platform has reached over 8,000 students and graduates in Rwanda. In 2019, the startup raised US$150,000 for expansion in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda.
GET IT
GET IT is a food and grocery delivery startup that procures groceries and food from farmers and delivers them to hotel, restaurants and frontier markets. The company sources products directly from farmers, cutting out several middlemen who add little value, providing higher quality products at a lower cost.
FreshBox Rwanda
FreshBox an AgriTech startup that provides portable, off-grid cold chain solutions to reduce post-harvest food loss, extending the shelf life of vegetables and fruits.
The startup which was founded in 2018 by Ganza Justus and Abhinav Gautam provides affordable cold rooms for storage and cold trucks to farmers for transporting the fresh produce.
4. Exuus (Rwanda)
Exuus is a FinTech startup that aims to leverage the power of informal collective saving schemes through a digital and decentralized collective wallet for saving groups. Founded in 2014 by Shema Steve, Exuus has developed two products, SAVE, a digital platform that financially empowers savings groups sustainably through a comprehensive, adequate, open and user-friendly saving groups ledger handling; and Cartix, a decentralised credit scoring algorithm for both saving groups and individual.
In 2018, Exuus received US$50,000 investment from Samurai Incubate Africa and thereafter won Seedstars Kigali pitching event in 2019. And just like A-Trader. Exuus was recently accepted into the CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa 2019.
Benefactors
Benefactors is a FinTech startup that provides tailored working capital solutions to firms. This includes offering businesses cash advances based on their invoices from reliable buyers.
47% of Rwandan SMEs can’t access to cash flow services, making it the least-accessed type of financial services, and the startup which was founded in 2017 by Olivia Zank supports SME’s in stabilizing their cash flows while exploring growth opportunities.
The startup works with pending invoices or purchase orders for delivery enabling businesses to continue working when payments delay. BeneFactors can provide up to 70 per cent of the invoice value within 24 hours of signing an agreement.
Without those court orders Uhuru could have turned himself into a supreme king
Everything you said has nothing to do with discipline but incompetence. If our government could have done its job we would not even have motocycles on the road. We know who are messing this Kenya but we always like blaming the ordinary people with no power
I really despise idiots who try to sound smart. Your comparison here has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand. If you take a moment and think about your comparison for example, India GDP vs Norway GDP. If you have sense to figure out the context of this, then perhaps you are simply a loud semi-illiterate. Otherwise, I really doubt you have a clue of what I am talking about.
Mombasa County is smaller than Rwanda and has a far smaller population of 1.2 million versus Rwanda’s 12.3 million and Mombasa is the same gdp as Rwanda!
Nairobi county is richer than Armenia!
Nairobi county is far richer than Botswana, Senegal or El salvador.
