Startups in Uganda have continued to grow with a bigger boost from external funders, picking a leaf from the Silicon Valley startups trend as a spotlight for African based versions. More fin-tech startups in the country were registered during the genesis of mobile money tax as digital payment solutions while some have propelled to the fast-rising boda hailing industry in Uganda.
SafeBoda is a renowned ride-hailing startup founded by Ricky Rapa Thompson, Alastair Sussock and Maxime Dieudonne. At the click of a button, the SafeBoda app allows you to hook up a professional driver at any location in Kampala and we once tested their service against the competition.
Well, SafeBoda has been ranked as one of the best Fin-tech startups of 2018 in Uganda as per an African report shared by the Daily Monitor. We believe this opens doors for more underrated startups for funding by hungry investors willing to pump extra cash into promising startups. The orange boda hailing service attracted a total funding of $1.3m as per the same report and this proves a steady ground for Fin-tech startups in the country.
How Safeboda will attract funding to other Fintech startups in Uganda
In a report for Africa’s technology and startup ecosystem, Fin-tech innovations were the most funded in 2018 with investors shifting focus to Uganda, Egypt, Ghana and Tunisia for prospective startups. In 2018, the startup sphere attracted over $725.3 million to 458 investments.
Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya attained the 3 podium positions with 136, 107 and 73 deals respectively. As a chain breaker, Fin-tech startups received the most investment in 2018 accounting for over 40% of total funding raised giving a clear head start for financial technology in Africa’s startup’s space.
Henceforth, with investors shifting focus to more countries including Uganda which was largely listed because of the boda hailing firm that managed to beat Uber and Taxify in a mixed modern sector last year. The fate of funding to new Fin-tech startups such as Xente, Chap Chap and a lot more in this category mighty one day see Uganda headlining the startups’ volution in Africa.
Nonetheless, it’s a heads up for SafeBoda which proved and a brighter future for better startups in future fueled by favorable ICT policies in the country.
