Two Groundbreaker Talents Win UGX 10 Million Startup Grant
Two Groundbreaker Talents have won a UGX 10 million micro-seed grant for an AI startup they built from scratch.
At the Pathogen Economy Labs x STI AI Innovation Demo Day 2026 at Makerere University in Kampala, Nina and Patience — Talents from Cohort 4 — received funding for SIMU, a curriculum-aligned AI tutor designed specifically for Uganda’s classrooms. When they joined Groundbreaker Talents last year, neither of them had a technical background. And now they have already launched their own tech startup!
The Problem They Solve
Uganda’s Competency-Based Curriculum expects students to research and learn independently. In many schools, however, that is difficult in practice.
When a class of 100 students shares just 20 textbooks, independent learning is incredibly difficult. Instead, students copy from each other, use unverified sources, or submit work that does not match what the curriculum expects.
Nina and Patience saw that issue clearly and built something to tackle it.
What SIMU does
SIMU is an AI-powered tutor built for the Ugandan classroom.
It gives students a personalised study companion that helps them learn from verified NCDC-approved materials, revise topics, ask curriculum-based questions, and prepare for exams.
What makes SIMU especially relevant is that it was designed for the realities many students learn in. It works offline, adapts to a student’s level and progress over time, and keeps every answer grounded in the actual curriculum rather than generic internet results.
In short, SIMU is not just another chatbot. It is more like a personal tutor that actually knows you — a learning tool designed around what Ugandan students are expected to learn and the conditions they are learning in.
From Groundbreaker Campus to the Tech Industry
Nina and Patience are proof of what becomes possible when young women get access to quality tech training. We are incredibly proud to see our alumni turning their skills into real solutions. They are building technology that responds to genuine needs in their own communities.
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