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When Olga Kiconco finished her Bachelor’s Degree in Telecom Engineering at a university in Malaysia in 2013, she knew it was time to look for jobs. But when she came back to Uganda, she was hit by the innovation bug. She started a cyber security firm with a couple of friends. They set up shop at Hive Colab, and this is where she started diving a little bit deeper into the startup world. Unknown to Olga, this was not just a pitstop for her, but it would be her trade for the foreseeable future.
Upon finishing her Master’s in International Business, she joined the Innovation Village in March 2017 where she started out organising innovation challenges, and later on, building programs to merge the corporate and the startup worlds. “After three years at the Innovation Village, I joined Wave Mobile Money. “I was at Wave for about a year, and I did a little bit of everything all at once starting with operations. It was a great experience, and it stretched my capacity to do a lot of things.”
Olga took a year off which is undoubtedly not a conventional thing to do in these parts of the world. “I did consulting projects only for a couple of months and then joined Future Africa in July 2022. I started as an investor relations principal, and am currently in Living Labs. This is going back to what I was fundamentally doing but on an Africa-wide scale.”
Future Africa is one of Africa’s prominent early-stage VC firms. It was founded by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, who is also a co-founder of two African unicorns, Flutterwave and Andela, and an investor in a soonicorn, Moove. Olga describes what it means to work with Iyinoluwa, who is also known in the tech circles as E. E is passionate about the African tech ecosystem, and it rubs off Olga.
“He is a true visionary. His vision for Africa is akin to Moses trying to deliver the Israelites from Egypt by all means. He has an “it can be done here” mindset. That rubs off the team as well. Things might not look great sometimes, but because we are led by someone with a big vision, we are compelled to stick to our purpose and do better in taking the continent to the next level. He is also a very positive and driven person and takes a lot of bold moves. And importantly, he is very humble”
But Olga recognizes the fact that there are not so many women in venture capital. She has been able to chart her own path to get here and break a few barriers. “Throughout my upbringing, I have been able to thrive in male-dominated spaces. At university, I could count the number of women that were in my engineering class. I grew up in a family that didn’t put limits on what I can or can’t do. They never told me, I can’t do this or do that. So I think this has helped me.” However, she recognizes that the majority of women may not be this lucky and shares advice on how other women can get into VC.
“I think breaking into VC or tech, in general, can be quite intimidating for women. However, the world is much more open now than it was 20 years ago. But of course, we must understand some of the challenges that have held women back. We need to build tech bridges for women. I encourage all women in tech and VC to mentor a group of young women. Young women should also actively seek out mentors and network. But also importantly, we need women to be given a chance.”
As we conclude our conversation, I asked Olga what needs to be done for Uganda to join the powerhouses of the African startup ecosystem in the long term. But in the short-term, Uganda risks falling behind the regional rivals Rwanda and Tanzania in the pecking order. “I think it’s about being intentional, that is having intentional leadership to say this is the direction and the vision and this is what we’re going to do to get there. I think we should move away from saying Africa has the potential to actually start doing the thing that needs to be done for that potential to be unleashed.”
She adds, “We also need to empower young people with what they need in order to get the job done. Young people are very smart. I interact with them in my work of building programs but I’m always amazed at what they’re able to come up with. I think it’s now a matter of how we build those enabling factors that can take them to the next level and ensure that their potential is realized.”