In East Africa's crowded accelerator market, SHONA has built its case around an unfashionable idea: make the company work before polishing the pitch. Its wager combines long-horizon coaching, local networks, and loans designed for the awkward middle between microcredit and venture capital.
Kenya has incubators, accelerators and business coaches. ASSEK’s bet is that helping them work better together can reach further than another startup programme.
A shared workspace in Kampala grew into a proving ground for Ugandan entrepreneurs. Its real work happens between a promising idea and a business that can pay its bills.
Eden Care Medical is a licensed digital health insurer building the claims and distribution infrastructure that modernizes health insurance in Africa. Starting in Rwanda and expanding into Kenya, it sells group health cover to employers and their staff, then runs the whole value chain - HR admin portal, an employee app for navigating care and wellness, and digital tools for hospitals and clinics - to cut the cost of insurance in a market where operating costs run 2.2x the global average and penetration sits near 0.2%.