Appfrica Labs Ltd.

Appfrica has a 2-prong business model:
1. We provide high-quality custom software development for NGOs and other local and/or social enterprises in a fee-for-service model.

2. This is a platform to develop other businesses through raising the soft and hard skill levels of the engineers we employ

The is a surplus of computer science talent here in Uganda and a lack of job opportunity. Appfrica exists to create jobs, support and launch Ugandan-owned IT startups.

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We operate as a software company with world-class talent that is competitive on price. This makes us an ideal firm for western companies interested in outsourcing software development.

We also offer social value add to NGOs who traditionally hire western companies, when the more socially responsible thing to do is to hire local, to build capacity through job creation.

On the development side, we target any company with software development needs.

On the Incubation side, Appfrica looks for talented programmers who otherwise would not find employment in their field of training. Approx. 10-20% of ICT graduates from top universities in Africa find employment in their field; Appfrica finds the top talent amongst the other 80%, gives them jobs, and enables them to be innovative and entrepreneurial.

There are a number of ICT development shops in the bigger markets in sub-Saharan Africa—in Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town, and Johannesburg. These shops mostly focus on international and local for-profit clients, and as they are in the top markets seeking top talent, they have higher operational costs.

Appfrica works on many levels. Long-term we're incubating Uganda's startups of tomorrow. Short-term we offer low-cost software development with high margins while saving clients money.

No one we are aware of is using a business incubation model in smaller markets in sub-Saharan Africa (not including the RSA). Similar companies in the US and western Europe exist, including for-profits like Y-Kombinator, pure nonprofits like the Apache Incubation project, and university-linked blended value models like ISIS of Oxford University. Appfrica is bringing full-on business incubation to East Africa and later, the rest of the region.

As a software company, we watch the trends of the industry and capitalize on them. For African clients the emphasis is on mobile applications and services, for American and European clients, we offer web application development. Our goal is to stay relevant by offering a low-cost alternative for cutting edge technology development. This is a model that has worked well in India, China, Singapore and other developing markets.

Jon Gosier cut his teeth at very successful startups in the United States working alongside and learning from very successful entrepreneurs. One was a large ISP, the other was a highly profitable start-up film studio. Ivan Kavuma, our Chief of Operations is a former employee of Microsoft and mentor to the staff.

As the brain behind the popular African tech blog, Appfrica.net, Jon Gosier is well known throughout the region for his work. This alone doesn't qualify him and on paper he may not even sound like the right person for the job. But if we let current successes, personal track record and accomplishments in African tech act as evidence, I think it's evidence that we have a very strong, reliable team.

I'm almost always working. I also have the backing and assistance of an active board, Glen Mehn (founding partner of London-based Boot Partners) and Hervé Cuviliez, founding partner of Kuv Capital.

Appfrica adds employment to the region, bringing its developers from the theoretical development frameworks seen in University to fully-skilled, team players familiar with the latest software development technologies. Further, Appfrica aims to make examples of these entrepreneurs, helping to find the Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerbergs of sub-Saharan Africa, encouraging entrepreneurship in the region.