Businesses need stability to grow. Unfortunately for the Sudanese people, for the past year and a half, the country has been reeling from an escalating civil war and stability has been difficult to achieve. More than 20,000 people have been killed in the country alone, and approximately 7.7 million people have been forced to flee. Millions of people have to flee across borders as refugees.
But you can still find a safe place. And in the relatively safe eastern states of Port Sudan and Kassala, one startup incubator resumed operations after a six-month forced hiatus when war broke out in the country last April.
“On Saturday, when the war broke out, we were staffing our offices, and three days later the RSF militia knocked on the door and said: ‘You guys have to leave. , there could be bullets flying through the air,” Yousif Yahya, founder of Savannah Innovation Labs, told TechCrunch.
Immediately after the warning, the conflict escalated, gunfire became louder and more frequent, and basic lifelines such as water and electricity were cut off. For Yahya, his family, and many others who fled to neighboring Egypt, the 12-hour, 550-mile journey became essential to survival.
wartime buildings
Exile isn’t great, but for Yahya, the rest and security has allowed him to continue with his plans to establish and run a startup incubator in Sudan. Savannah operates from Cairo, the capital of Egypt and one of Africa’s largest startup hubs, and has been able to establish operations in the relatively safe eastern region of Sudan.
Yousif Yahya is the founder of Savannah Innovation Labs. He co-founded an incubator in 2018 to drive innovation in Sudan. Image credit: Yousif Yahya
The first installment of Savannah’s “We-Rise” bootcamp was funded by the European Union and the Italian Agency for Development and Cooperation and aimed at fostering entrepreneurship. The program was attended by entrepreneurs who were starting a company or just thinking of an idea, and provided them with a starting point. Over 300 companies participated in one year. The 100 finalists of the bootcamp pitch competition will receive grants ranging from 2,500 euros ($2,783) to 7,500 euros ($8,313).
Before the war, the program was intended to provide equity funding to finalists, but Yahya explained that the grant made it easier to continue the program.
“The main idea was that the work should continue,” he said. “One, because we still have young people in this country who are eager to go ahead and start a business or study, but they don’t have the means to leave the country.Secondly, if Even if the war is over, I don’t want to go back to scratch to explain to people what a term sheet is, what capital is, and what a company formation should look like.”
“War is chaotic. War is ugly. But at the same time, we now have a clean slate,” he added.
pursuit of talent
Savannah now aims to build a network beyond Sudan’s borders into neighboring Uganda, Kenya and Egypt, bringing together the dispersed members of Sudan’s startup community. The aim is to resume what Yahya set out to do in 2018: establish a talent pool to drive the country’s technology transformation.
Savannah was conceptualized while Yahya was studying international relations at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania. And after he founded an incubator in Sudan, he began helping university students gain experience working in technology companies so they could experience how startups work.
Yahya argues that talent comes before the investment needed to transform a country.
An ongoing battle for control between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left business centers like Sudan’s capital Khartoum inaccessible. Image credit: Yousif Yahya
“The whole idea is to develop the talent you need to start your own company. I would never tell anyone that this is an overnight success story or anything like that. But it will take some time for the seeds currently being planted to become clear,” he said.
Now, thanks to Savannah, thousands of people have access to Sudan’s startup ecosystem. It has also nurtured many startups, including Bloom (now Elevate), Sudan’s first YC-backed startup.
I’m not saying I don’t take risks.
Yahya, who is also a partner in the venture firm Africa Renaissance Partners, is committed to capital investment in untapped markets such as Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda, particularly those considered high-risk due to conflict, such as Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He says he is passionate about bridging the gap. ).
The Democratic Republic of Congo, a country ravaged by armed conflict, continues to be at the top of the emerging startup market.
“If you want a large market, you need to look to places like Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “The work will be rewriting the framework of what the new economy will look like,” he said.
Yahya and his family, like many Sudanese, made the 12-hour journey to the Egyptian border to escape the war. Six months later, he brought Savannah back into operation from Egypt. Image credit: Yousif Yahya
“We are not waiting for anything to stop so that we can continue to create what we want. No one will come and do this work for us. …Many people We’re talking about war and famine and all these ugly things that are happening right now, and of course we have to talk about that. But on the other hand, we have to talk about what the next day is going to be. What kind of values do we want? What kind of society do we need to lead? What kind of companies will run our country?”
Sudan’s startup ecosystem is still in its infancy, but several players are working to foster the ecosystem, including 249Startups and Impact Hub. The community has seen some resurgence since some sanctions were eased in 2017, and Yahya remains optimistic.
“I would wager that post-war Sudan will be a very ripe venture capital market because many of the large family businesses have either folded or shed large amounts of cash,” he said. “Many of these businesses, and many of the patriarchs who built them, no longer have the wherewithal to get back on track. New generations want to come in, and they’re starting with funds and businesses in areas that their family businesses have historically been in. I’ll set up an advisory company.”
