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Ugandan startup, Yunga Technologies, has made it to the finals of the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation organized by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK. Yunga is now in line to take home £25,000 (about shs 120 million) in equity-free money. The startup will face off with three other African startups. As a finalist, Yunga is assured of winning £10,000 (shs 47 million).
.Yunga is a startup that builds a Yaka-like device that connects neighbours to neighbours and neighbours to law enforcement in real-time without requiring the internet. Neighbourhoods are organized into groups or Yunga networks, and each house is equipped with a Yunga device. In the event of an attack or emergency, all your neighbours are immediately notified and called upon to come to your rescue as quickly as possible through an alarm device that is mounted to a wall. Yunga is now in over 1,000 households across Wakiso and Kampala.
In a call with CEO East Africa, the CEO Anatoli Kirigwajjo, revealed that they tried applying for the same prize in 2019, but felt they weren’t ready. “We decided to apply again for the prize recently, and now we have managed to make it through the finals. We went to London for a two weeks training, and we had to set up milestones in which we had to grow by 60%. By the time all the 15 finalists applied, we had grown by 43% which was interesting for us. Because it was beyond our expectations. We did more sales after the program than we have done before.”
Anatoli has learnt how to be more investment ready, and to focus on the traction. Regarding investment readiness, he points out a few tips he has learnt. “ We were introduced to different investment readiness techniques, such as the Abaca checklist, where we have been able to reorganize our data room. We can now give investors proper context in understanding f the team, problem and vision, and value proposition. Also, we can properly explain what scale looks for Yunga and understand investor exits.”
Yunga is already enjoying the fruits of the training program. They have been able to raise funding from two investors including Ortus Africa Capital and another investor that remains undisclosed as of now. They have also hit 1,000 households that use their security device with more than half of those coming after the training.
As a finalist, Yunga is already assured of winning £10,000. Anatoli is planning for those funds. “We want to introduce a B2B model. We want to start partnering with real estate developers to build their houses and input the Yunga security device. This money will help us to unlock a lot of opportunities.” But he is confident of winning the grand prize of £25,000 which will help the startup to add at least another 1,000 users to its network.
Winning this award will not be the first time Yunga has won funding in the form of prize money. In 2019, they won the Global Innovation Through Science and Technology Prize which was organized in Bahrain by the US Department of State. Winning first place came with a check for $25,000 which helped them in their early days of building Yunga. In 2018, they also won some money after coming in first place at the Hague Institute of Innovation in Law (HIIL) where they got €35,000 which enabled them to build the Yunga devices locally.
Apart from the money, Anatoli is excited about the networking opportunities that come with winning the award. “The academy has a network of engineers, mentors and investors. We have already benefited from this through a London-based engineer that has helped us to develop our next version of Yunga devices.”
The Africa Prize was founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014 and is dedicated to engineering innovation in Africa. The prize, which is in its 9th edition, will see the winner being announced on 6th July 2023. The four shortlisted finalists were selected from 15 innovations.
Yunga will face off with Revive Kit from Nigeria, an e-mobility service used to convert gas-powered three-wheeled motorbikes to run on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and FlexiGyn from South Africa which is a battery-powered portable handheld device that enables gynaecologists to diagnose and treat a woman’s uterus without anaesthesia or expensive equipment. The last finalist is WAGA PAWA Pack, a rechargeable power source created from recycled laptop lithium-ion batteries.