Raphael
As you know, we are at TechInAfrica, passionated with startups all around the African continent. We have started now that series of watchlist of startups in different African countries, and let’s continue this with Rwanda.
Rwanda is part of East Africa, and has a population of 12 million people. Rwanda envisions becoming an upper middle-income country by 203 and high-income by 2050. Rwanda focuses on four drivers of growth : innovation, integration, agglomeration and competition With 10 million mobile subscriptions, which represent more than 77% of the population and 44% of the mobile users connected to internet, Zambia has a big advertising audience on Social media where Facebook and Instagram represents 600 thousand of active users every month. Here are 10 startups that we have selected in Rwanda for 2019, that are disrupting different industries with new technologies.
Kasha wants to make it easy for women to get the health & personal care products they need especially in low-income rural areas of emerging markets. As a critical lever, They want to make it easy for manufacturers of women’s health and personal care products to get their products to the people that need them, especially in low-income rural areas of emerging markets.
Carisoko is the first online cars classifieds website in Rwanda. People can easily find new and used cars for sale, as well as sell your vehicles online on the website. If a customer want to buy a car, a motorcycle or a truck in Rwanda, in cities such as Kigali, Gicumbi, Gasarenda, Huye, Rubavu, Karongi or others, and only have a small budget, he will find the best choices on Carisoko.
SafeMotos is an established on demand ride hailing platform that has been a pioneer in user experience, product design and innovation since 2014. After more than 350,000 trips completed in SafeMotos pilot market of Kigali in Rwanda, SafeMotos is now expanding into the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa. SafeMotos is using the established business model developed by GoJek in Indonesia to reduce the pain of transportation for the inhabitants of Kinshasa and provide users with empowering new services.
Mergrims is a prepayment platform of products and services of first necessity in Rwanda. It is the sole platform to enable “Prepayment” of more than airtime and electricity, but also critical services like hospital, medicines, schools or transport. By making mergims available on mobile devices and APIs, they are bringing convenience in already stressful and costly process of sending money back to Africans, so they can meet their basic needs!
MindSky is an online platform connecting current university students and graduates in Rwanda with employment opportunities. Employers post their internships and job opportunities on the MindSky job board. MindSky members apply for openings directly on the platform using our professionally-formatted online profile builder as their application document. Hiring managers log in, view, and sort applications as they come in.
EarthEnable provides Rwandans with healthier homes by training local masons to craft an affordable and durable earthen floor. The floor is composed of natural materials (gravel, clay, sand, and other additives) and sealed with a layer of proprietary drying oil that makes the floor impermeable, easy to clean, and polished.
WebSpace Limited was born in 2013. In the spirit of East African Community cohesion, WebSpace Limited aims to grow the domain base within the Rwandan community. On-line identity and its subsequent security is something that every business person should take into great consideration while setting up shop.
Asuqu connect creatives and professionals with prospective customers in Africa, helping to remove the traditional barriers to innovation, empowerment and entrepreneurship. The future is more important than the past as people journey to re-shape the way business is done. They aim to be the leading online marketplace for creative and professional services by providing a convenient, secure and trusted way for buyers and sellers to achieve their goals.
Hooza Music is an ambitious mobile application created by Hooza Ltd in 2012. It provides streaming distribution service for local Rwandan music.The application has an environment that enables every smartphone holder to access, browse, listen and download legal music.
ARED have developed a business in a box solar kiosk, app and software platform to bring connectivity solutions using internet WIFI, intranet solution for offline users, phone charging solutions combine with the sales of services such as airtime, mobile money, prepaid electricity, tax payment for people at the base of the pyramid. They use a micro franchise model to empower mostly women and people with disability. Their vision is to implement the best one stop shop center for our customers in rural and semi urban areas to disrupt the existing informal sector in Africa
