BongoHive — Zambia's First Technology & Innovation Hub

BongoHive is Zambia's first technology and innovation hub, founded in May 2011 in Lusaka by Lukonga Lindunda, Bart Cornille and Simunza Muyangana, who started out in a single room inside the Ministry of Education's office complex with eight interns.

By 2020, independent Pan-African tech outlet TechCabal reported that BongoHive had supported nearly 1,300 startups and MSMEs and helped channel more than $2 million in resources to them since 2016, through co-working space, mentorship, training and networking. BongoHive's own 2026 reporting puts the cumulative total at more than 2,800 startups supported over 14 years, including over 1,000 women-led enterprises; a partnership with Standard Chartered's Women in Tech initiative has funded 160 female founders with grants of up to $20,000 each.

The hub has diversified beyond Lusaka: its programmes now operate in Namibia, Malawi and Mozambique through local partnerships, and it runs sector-specific initiatives such as the #40Days40FinTechs programme and an Investor Ready Hackathon with MTN Zambia. It is developing BongoHive Ventures, an investment fund, in partnership with Inside Capital.

BongoHive's own communications lead has acknowledged structural constraints on record, citing 'rigid policies, limited funding avenues, and difficulties in accessing global markets' as ongoing hurdles for the startups it supports — an honest counterpoint to the hub's growth figures.

Read the full analysis: https://bongohive.co.zm/about/