Uganda is trying to enhance foreign investment in its growing startup ecosystem, following negotiations between Legacy Hills Investments Ltd and Italian investors about funding options for East African technology startups. The discussions took place during the Startup Africa Roadtrip Roadshow and the WMF (We Make Future) innovation conference in Milan and Bologna, where Legacy Hills showcased Uganda’s startup environment and urged European investors to back local technology firms.
The activities come as Uganda faces the challenge of having one of the world’s youngest populations, with about 80% of its citizens under the age of 30, and approximately 700,000 young people entering the labor force each year. Analysts believe startups and small firms can play an important role in providing jobs for the rising workforce, but many entrepreneurs continue to struggle to obtain inexpensive long-term funding.
According to Legacy Hills CEO Sharon Tumushabe, global investors are increasingly looking outside Africa’s conventional investment hubs to see the potential of emerging nations such as Uganda. Investors are showing growing interest in markets where innovation addresses real world challenges and offers strong growth potential. Uganda has proven its ability to bypass traditional systems, especially in financial services and digital inclusion.
According to Tumushabe, the meetings in Italy helped deepen ties between East African entrepreneurs and European investors, creating opportunities that could lead to new funding partnerships. There is increasing recognition that some of Africa’s most innovative solutions are emerging from countries that have traditionally received less venture capital. Our responsibility is to close that gap by linking local entrepreneurs building scalable businesses with global investment.
Legacy Hills has announced intentions to build Uganda’s first institutional venture capital fund, which would seek participation from pension funds, institutional investors, and family offices to promote high-potential entrepreneurs in Uganda and the wider East African area.
Tumushabe stated that Uganda has the fundamental factors required to establish globally competitive enterprises, including a young population, increased digital adoption, and entrepreneurs that use technology to address local concerns. She noted that the most significant gap has been access to patient finance that understands these enterprises’ long-term potential.
If successful, the fund might alleviate one of the most difficult problems for Ugandan entrepreneurs by offering an alternative to commercial banks, which frequently require collateral and view early-stage enterprises as too risky. As a result, many entrepreneurs have had to rely on grants, personal resources, and international investors.
In recent years, Uganda’s startup ecosystem has grown steadily, with financial technology, agricultural, health technology, and clean energy emerging as some of its strongest industries. Uganda has emerged as a regional leader in digital financial services, with millions of individuals using mobile platforms to save, send, and receive money, with mobile money transactions totaling hundreds of trillions of shillings annually.
During the discussions in Italy, Legacy Hills presented how Uganda has used mobile money to boost financial inclusion by delivering financial services to people in rural and underserved areas without relying on traditional banking infrastructure. Legacy Hills has praised the Bank of Uganda’s regulatory sandbox, stating that it allows fintech companies to develop innovative products under regulatory scrutiny and has helped to establish Uganda as one of East Africa’s emerging fintech marketplaces.
Legacy Hills cited XENO Investment as an example of domestic innovation, a platform that allows people to invest via USSD technology without the requirement for cellphones or internet connectivity, making investment services available to areas that are frequently excluded from traditional financial products.
Tumushabe said the true value of attracting venture capital for ordinary Ugandans lies in creating jobs, improving services, and giving young people greater opportunities to build businesses capable of competing across the region and globally.
As global investors look for growth prospects in Africa, Uganda is promoting itself as a hub for technology investment and entrepreneurship-driven economic development. Government officials and corporate sector stakeholders believe that better international partnerships will help the country’s growing pool of entrepreneurial talent.
