START-UP DIRECTORY
This directory brings together the ventures that have received PEL funding, highlighting their innovative solutions, founders, and contributions.
SukaaliKnow Ltd
Enables accurate, standardized Type 2 diabetes risk assessment for healthcare providers.
Founder
HELLEN NAKABUYE
Team Size
3
Pilot users acquired
3
Jobs created
7
Stage before Joining program
Stage advance to after program
SukaaliKnow Ltd
Problem Description
Diabetes Type 2 is on the rise in our communities, and help is often offered after life-changing complications occur. This condition is reversible once risk is identified early during prediabetes phase (high risk) or intermediate risk. Lifestyle changes especially in diet and physical activity can tremendously lower one’s risk. There is need for an easy, accurate, and standard Diabetes Type 2 risk assessment tool to identify and quantify patients’ risk early.
The Solution
SukaaliCheck Application offers healthcare providers easy, accurate, and standard Diabetes Type 2 risk assessment to identify and quantify patients’ risk before life-changing complications occur, saving resources and lives. Following up high risk patients, confirmatory test recording when recommended, lifestyle recommendations, and data collection all in one place.
Priority for Resources Received
Improving an existing product, Conducting Market Research, Piloting the solution, Securing partnerships, Registering the business, ETHICAL APPROVAL
Impact as a Result of Support Received
438 patients were screened for diabetes type 2 risk using the SukaaliCheck Application, with 145 high risk individuals identified and given appropriate lifestyle recommendations to lower their risk.
Liver AI
Helps identify and characterize high-risk liver cases.
Co-Founder
SOLOMON AGABA
Team Size
2
Pilot users acquired
1
Jobs created
3
Stage before Joining program
Stage advance to after program
Liver AI
Problem Description
Many patients succumb to liver cancer due to late diagnosis and incur high costs due to repeated visits to the imaging centres until the diagnosis is completed/conclusive enough to the readers satisfaction/knowledge
The Solution
Liver AI is a second reader that filters through the ultrasound images and characterizes cases that require an experts eye and a conclusive test run immediately without sending off the patient and allow the cancer to mature and spread further.
Priority for Resources Received
Prototype Development, Building a Minimum Viable Product, Improving an existing product, Conducting Market Research, Piloting the solution, Securing partnerships
DIGAMS - Impala Healthtech Research
Connects healthcare providers, labs, pharmacies, and professionals through an integrated digital health platform.
Founder
CHRAISH MIIRO
Team Size
11
Pilot users acquired
103
Jobs created
8
Stage before Joining program
Stage advance to after program
DIGAMS - Impala Healthtech Research
Problem Description
Diabetes Type 2 is on the rise in our communities, and help is often offered after life-changing complications occur. This condition is reversible once risk is identified early during prediabetes phase (high risk) or intermediate risk. Lifestyle changes especially in diet and physical activity can tremendously lower one’s risk. There is need for an easy, accurate, and standard Diabetes Type 2 risk assessment tool to identify and quantify patients’ risk early.
The Solution
DIGAMS is an integrated digital health marketplace and clinical intelligence platform designed to connect healthcare facilities, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies and healthcare professionals.
At the infrastructure level, DIGAMS enables healthcare facilities to access and transact for diagnostic services, refer and track laboratory samples, manage pharmacy services, and connect with other healthcare providers through a digital marketplace. This creates a connected ecosystem through which healthcare and diagnostic services can be accessed and coordinated more efficiently.
Priority for Resources Received
Improving an existing product, Piloting the solution, Securing partnerships, Generating revenue, Recruitment of new team members
Impact as a Result of Support Received
The biggest story has been an effective integration into the entire district health system in Buikwe District, supporting Public and private no for profit health facilities through the Hub System using DIGAMS. More than 100 clinicians have got access to advanced diagnostics, and are able to make evidence-based decisions.
Aicyclinder- Feyti Medical Group
Streamlines regulatory dossier preparation, review, and compliance for faster medicine approvals.
Founder
NOEL KANSIIME
Team Size
17
Pilot users acquired
0
Jobs created
8
Stage before Joining program
Stage advance to after program
Aicyclinder- Feyti Medical Group
Problem Description
Pharmaceutical companies and regulatory teams face significant challenges in preparing, reviewing, managing, and submitting regulatory dossiers such as CTD applications. Dossier preparation is often highly manual, time-consuming, and dependent on extensive document review, formatting, cross-referencing, and compliance checks. These challenges can lead to errors, repeated revisions, increased costs, and delays in regulatory submission and approval of medicines. There is also limited access to intelligent tools that can efficiently process large volumes of regulatory documents while ensuring alignment with applicable regulatory requirements.
The Solution
Feyti is developing an AI-powered regulatory platform that streamlines the preparation, review, management, and submission of regulatory dossiers. The platform uses AI to support document classification, information extraction, document review, compliance assessment, cross-referencing, and identification of missing or inconsistent information within CTD/dossier submissions. By reducing manual work and improving the quality and consistency of regulatory documentation, the solution aims to shorten dossier preparation timelines, reduce errors and rework, and ultimately contribute to faster and more efficient regulatory review and approval of medicines.
Priority for Resources Received
Prototype Development, Building a Minimum Viable Product, Improving an existing product, Conducting Market Research
Impact as a Result of Support Received
The support enabled Feyti to advance the development of its AI-powered regulatory platform, enhance key product functionalities, conduct market research, and improve the platform’s alignment with applicable regulatory requirements and legal frameworks. The program also strengthened Feyti’s market readiness and helped the team build strategic institutional partnerships, including engagements with the Uganda Industrial Research and Development Corporation (UIRI) and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST). In addition, Feyti has progressed customer engagement and prequalification processes with potential customers, including Freyr, DEI Biopharma, and PLG, providing valuable insights into market needs and opportunities.
Gritap AI - Gritap Innovations (U) Ltd
Explainable AI that predicts viral rebound and treatment failure in Ugandan patients on HIV therapy.
Founder
SSENOGA BADRU
Team Size
2
Pilot users acquired
5
Jobs created
3
Stage before Joining program
Stage advance to after program
Gritap AI - Gritap Innovations (U) Ltd
Problem Description
A critical gap in Uganda’s HIV/AIDS care landscape, the inability to detect viral rebound and other treatment challenges in patients on ART before it becomes clinically apparent through standard laboratory testing.
The Solution
Gritap AI is an explainable machine learning clinical decision support tool for predicting viral rebound and virologic failure in HIV-positive patients on Antiretroviral Therapy in Uganda.
Priority for Resources Received
Prototype Development, Building a Minimum Viable Product, Conducting Market Research, Securing partnerships, Registering the business, Applying for Intellectual Property protection
Impact as a Result of Support Received
Constructive feedback received from test users (clinicians), that guided product improvement tasks implementation
SIMU
AI tutor delivering NCDC-aligned, competency-based learning to Ugandan secondary students via web and WhatsApp.
Founder
PATIENCE SITATI
Team Size
2
Pilot users acquired
6
Jobs created
3
Stage before Joining program
Stage advance to after program
Problem Description
Pharmaceutical companies and regulatory teams face significant challenges in preparing, reviewing, managing, and submitting regulatory dossiers such as CTD applications. Dossier preparation is often highly manual, time-consuming, and dependent on extensive
Uganda’s secondary schools moved to the NCDC Competency-Based Curriculum, but the support students need to actually learn under it hasn’t followed. Class sizes make individual feedback impossible; most teachers were trained under the old content-heavy syllabus, and the CBC’s emphasis on application, scenarios, and competencies is exactly the part students can’t practice alone.
Outside class, a learner revising for UNEB has three options: a textbook with no one to explain it, a private tutor their family can’t afford, or a general-purpose AI chatbot that isn’t aligned to the Ugandan syllabus, can’t cite a source, and confidently invents content. The access gap compounds the learning gap, most students reach the internet through a shared low-end phone and a WhatsApp bundle, not a laptop and broadband, so even good digital learning tools are built for a device and a data plan they don’t have.
The Solution
SIMU is an AI tutor for Ugandan secondary students (S1–S6), aligned to the NCDC Competency-Based Curriculum and delivered over both the web and WhatsApp. Unlike a general chatbot, every answer is grounded in the actual curriculum corpus: SIMU retrieves from ingested NCDC syllabi and textbooks and returns explanations with citations back to the source material, using the syllabus to keep responses inside the scope a student is actually examined on. The tutor works in multi-turn conversation, anchors explanations to CBC competencies, and generates scenario-based, UNEB-style practice checks rather than recall questions — so students practice the form of thinking the curriculum assesses. A safety layer screens every exchange in both directions, which matters when the users are minors.
Delivery is the second half of the solution. WhatsApp means a student can learn on the phone they already own without a new app or a data plan they can’t afford, while the web app serves schools and better-connected learners. Teacher and admin dashboards give schools visibility into progress, and tiered access free, school license, and premium lets us keep an always-free tier for individual students while schools and paying users carry the cost.
Priority for Resources Received
Prototype Development, Building a Minimum Viable Product, Improving an existing product, Conducting Market Research, Piloting the solution, Securing partnerships, Registering the business, Recruitment of new team members
Impact as a Result of Support Received
Without this program’s support, SIMU wouldn’t have reached this stage or completed market validation. Building in a silo often gives a false impression of what users actually need. By visiting schools like Airforce Secondary and Boston High School, we spoke directly with teachers sampling SIMU and gained deeper insights. For instance, we discovered that students urgently need supplementary resources—specifically animated explanations to clarify complex concepts and a wider library of books (especially at A-level) to support their learning.
Law Lens - Magentiq AI Labs Ltd
AI-powered legal research tool trained on Uganda’s legal framework for faster, locally grounded legal research.
Founder
JOTHAM MARTIN WAMBI
Team Size
3
Pilot users acquired
47
Jobs created
5
Stage before Joining program
Stage advance to after program
Gritap AI - Gritap Innovations (U) Ltd
Problem Description
Legal research has for long been stuck with old and outdated tools which has made it too length, hard to unearth information in a timely and fast way.
The Solution
Law Lens. A Legal research automation tool built with a local model trained on the entire Ugandan legal framework including acts, judgements, regulations, policies etc.
Priority for Resources Received
Prototype Development, Building a Minimum Viable Product, Conducting Market Research, Piloting the solution, Securing partnerships, Registering the business
Impact as a Result of Support Received
We were able to finally pilot and onboard users onto the platform supported entirely by the grant
