Since the Genocide against the Tutsis in 1994, Rwanda has rebuilt itself from scratch. Digitalization has been thriving in the past decade — throughout the Covid-19-Pandemic; however, digital businesses gained remarkable momentum. Many Rwandans started companies and worked in the tech industry during the past two years. At the same time, foreign investors and startups discovered Rwanda as a country with the best resources for their endeavors. Thus, an ever-growing startup scene has emerged, ranging from environmental to financial and educational technology companies.
These are our ten startups operating in Rwanda to watch.
1. Offgridbox
Year Founded: 2010
HQ: Boston, MassachusettsFounders: Emiliano Cecchini and Davide Bonsignore founded OffGridBox
Offgridbox is a company located in Italy, the United States, and Rwanda. Its mission is to develop a net positive impact by providing affordable clean water and energy in remote areas. Their headquarters are in Boston, Massachusetts, at Greentown Labs.
The founders Emiliano Cecchini and Davide Bonsignore met in 2010 while both were working at La Fabbrica del Sole, a non-profit focused on constructing clean energy products in Italy. During their work, they collaborated with OXFAM on several projects worldwide, bringing electricity and clean water to rural areas. However, installing the systems, training people, and acquiring the materials made the process complicated. Thus, the idea of OffGridBox was born — a water purifying system that fits in one container and is easy to manage. The company started with different pilot projects worldwide, but the entrepreneurs are now set on Rwanda. The country’s support for green technologies made it an ideal place to create a significant social impact. Today, OffGridBox is based on a PayAsYouGo model and expanding its reach to more communities needing a sustainable and affordable clean water solution. It’s already providing hundreds of families with clean water.
2. Babyl
Year Founded: 2016
HQ: Rwanda, Kigali
Founder: Ali Parsa
Babylon opened in Rwanda, as Babyl Rwanda, with the mission to make healthcare accessible and affordable for everybody. Its founder, Ali Parsa, is a British-Iranian healthcare entrepreneur and engineer listed in the “The Times” 100 people to watch.
Babyl combines revolutionary AI with the latest technologies. It provides virtual consultations with the best clinical experts and doctors, extensive medical Q&A, cutting-edge monitoring and diagnostics, one-tap appointment booking, prescription delivery, and secure 24/7 access to clinical records — all of which can be accessed via mobile phone.
A team of experienced doctors works with the company to bring affordable healthcare to people in need.
3. Smartclass
Year Founded: 2018
HQ: Rwanda, Kigali
Founder: Abdulrahman Niyonizeye
Smartclass is an online platform company with a mission to give young people the opportunity to attain an excellent education. Abdulrahman Niyonizeye, its young founder, worked as a part-time tutor in 2017. He witnessed how difficult it was for parents to hire private tutors for their children back then. This experience inspired him to move forward with an idea he had contemplated since he was a high school student: the concept of a platform with quality learning material accessible for all students.
Smartclass attempts to connect all high school students in Rwanda who take similar lessons. It provides adequate materials and high-quality teachers. This platform aims to help students achieve academic excellence no matter their location or time of day.
4. Zipline
Year Founded: 2016
HQ: South San Francisco, California, United States
Founders: Keller Rinaudo, Keenan Wyrobek
Zipline is both a service provider and an implementation partner for creating optimized on-demand delivery systems. Zipline facilitates new models of care, extends its client’s reach, and leverages data to improve their on-demand operation continuously.
Zipline started in Rwanda and Ghana and is moving around the world. They deliver shipments of life-saving blood and medical supplies to hospitals and health facilities. Today, they have provided hundreds of thousands of freight around the world. By building a sizeable autonomous network, they are constantly transforming and increasing their delivery speed to places worldwide.
5. BAG Innovation
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Rwanda, Kigali
Founders: Gabriel Ekman, Yussouf Ntwali
BAG innovation began working in a tiny office in Kacyiru. Since then, they have impacted over 10,000 young people and assisted more than 600 graduates in finding employment opportunities. With a light-hearted yet professional atmosphere, the startup goes about its mission: Helping students and young people access the right tools for their career development.
6. Uplus
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Rwanda, Kigali
Founder: Clement Muhirwa
Uplus Mutual Partners (U+) is a digital group financing platform that enables interoperability for social and economic growth and allows people from everywhere to connect, contribute and save for causes that will better their livelihoods and communities on the platform.
Uplus’s solution addresses common challenges in traditional savings avenues such as limited convenience. The platform is available as an application (iOS and Android) that allows any group to save and collectively finance investments (from any mobile money solution) for social and economic growth.
7. Payday
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Canada and Rwanda
Founder: Favour Ori
Payday is a financial technology company helping Africans send and receive money globally. The Pan-African financial technology company raised one million dollars to build out what they believe will be the “PayPal” for Africa. Several investors backed the company. With a talented and diverse team at the helm, the fintech firm plans to build a successful platform for Africans to send and receive money worldwide.
8. Exuus
Year Founded: 2014
HQ: Rwanda, Kigali
Founder: Steve Shema
Exuus is a Rwandan software development firm that developed SAVE, a digital platform and interoperable decentralized ledger for saving groups.
Exuus has represented Rwanda at the Seedstars Africa summit held in Johannesburg in December 2019. In 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, they achieved 1 Billion Rwandan Francs (approx. 983.000$) in transacted value and dispersed 300 Million Rwandan Francs (approx. 295.000$) in loans. In addition, the company crowdfunded almost 2000 mobile phones that were given to people in rural communities.
9. Bongalo
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Rwanda, Kigali
Founder: Nghombombong Epaphrate Minuifuong
Bongalo was a real estate platform in Cameroon that started in 2017. It transformed into a booking platform in 2019.
Bongalo is a booking website in different cities of Africa where you can book rooms in apartments or entire apartments for either a long or short stay. The company verifies every listing before approving it on the platform, ensuring its authenticity and credibility.
10. Kayko
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Rwanda, Kigali
Founders: Crepin Kayisire and Kevin Kayisire
KAYKO powers organizations in the developing world with tools to accelerate their value and close the gap between data insights and actions. They believe that small businesses are the backbone of the Rwandan economy and provide the tools for them to thrive in the digital economy. They started with 5000 USD — with its product KAYKO. The app helps small businesses to track their cash flows, maintain bookkeeping records, manage stock and attract new customers. Since the app’s launch in December 2021, it has attracted more than 100 small businesses.
codeshift
codeshift helps companies build digital products and follows the idea that talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not. Engineering leads in Berlin work with skilled software engineers based in Rwanda. Part of the mission is to have a positive social and economic impact.
