Entrepreneur of the week; Mwesigye Prosper Mugisha and Mugulusi Ronald

Egora Ltd, a company that was started in 2011, joined the Mara Launchpad Uganda in March 2012. It was started by Mugulusi Ronald and Mwesigye Prosper Mugisha- both university students, who were using their hostel rooms as company offices.

Mwesigye Prosper Mugisha and Mugulusi Ronald, Working at the Mara Launchpad

EgoSMS, the company’s main product, is a web-based reliable and cost effective SMS application that is easily used to send bulk SMS, scheduled SMS, customized SMS and automated texts at an instant, to a large audience.

“As a growing company run by young entrepreneurs, doing business is challenging and the costs are high” says Ronald. “We lacked the technical knowledge but that was not reason enough to make us give up. It actually gave us a reason to even work harder. Seven months down the road and we have the EgoSMS of today with good growth rate. Our goal is to be the market leaders in SMS business by our third anniversary “, he explained

Egora Ltd charges between 35-20 shillings per message. These can be sent across the East African region to most of the telecom networks and the messages never expire.  Purchases can be made online using any of the major mobile payment options like MTN mobile money, Warid Pesa, Airtel money e.t.c.  Egosms application enables the client to see their message history, transaction history, uploaded files and message templates with vast amount of storage. The application is tailor made for churches, schools, meetings, multi-level marketing firms, individuals, organizations, institutions, companies and many more.

Since joining the Mara Launchpad, Egora Ltd has been able to professionalize its work. “We used to make up excuses to meet clients at their premises and restaurants since we didn’t have our own, this was affecting our operation costs in teams of transport and restaurant bills” said Mugisha. The Mara Launchpad has given us the visibility and increased on our networks through the different events hosted at the Launchpad. Explained Mugisha

Entrepreneur of the Week: Bernard Lungs

Bernard Lungs is the brains behind Charcolite Firestarter Limited, the company that was recently announced as the Mara Launch Fund’s first investment.  The company produces clean and effective fire starters as a safe, efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to the newspapers or polythene paper commonly used in Ugandan households to start fire in charcoal briquettes. Not only can it be used as a fire starter, but it can also be used for lighting!

As a graduate from our mentorship program, Bernard is indebted to Mr. Arinaitwe Rugyendo, the founder and Chief Marketing Director of Red Pepper Publications and Mr. Kirowi Suma, the Managing Director of Rwenzori Bottling Company, who were his mentors and helped sharpen his business acumen.

He started his business in 2010 with an interesting idea to turn the naturally occurring sugar in grass into ethanol.  Although this idea did not go far, it gave rise to the ingenious idea to create a fire starter that is both clean and environmentally friendly from papyrus grass!

A very ambitious entrepreneur, Bernard also has plans of expanding to produce clean and effective cooking briquettes as well.

Currently pursuing a degree in Bachelor of Commerce, his second degree, it is safe to say only greater things lie in wait for this innovative entrepreneur, watch this space!

Entrepreneur of the week; Elijah “Bee” Beesigomwe

Elijah “Bee” Beesigomwe joined our mentoring Programme in its second cycle and has been a part of the Mara Entrepreneur community ever since. He has been actively inspiring others through his story of taking the risk to quit formal employment for the difficult but rewarding task of running a business.  A Code junkie, Elijah has managed to build 3 successful web platforms that have undeniable relevance to Uganda. He lauds his mentor Mr. Raj Thakrar for the great support to his business.

“My mentor has provided valuable guidance and support and tips for enhancing our product. We were able to soft launch our service, with the help of our mentor who also became our first client.”

Successful Projects

DillEva is the convenient online shopping mall where you can shop without needing to go from store to store. You can compare prices from anywhere! When you make a purchase your order will be handled by a dedicated team that will ensure you are given world class service and come back for more!DillEva helps you improve your quality of life by making it easier for you to find quality products from the stores you love at your convenience. We help you maintain your way of life by saving you the burden and time spent shopping so that you can have more time to do the things you love. You shop online and we’ll DillEva!!

Somesha is a web and mobile application that will give disadvantaged students a chance at Education through crowd funding using Mobile and electronic micro payments. Following our launch at Garage48 in Kampala, we’re preparing to go live and change the world. Thank you for your support everyone!

Sonda is a crowd fundraising platform on the web and mobile aimed at easing the whole process involved in soliciting for and collecting funds.