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Good practice Imported

iceaddis — Ethiopia's First Innovation Hub and Startup Incubator

Ethiopia · Addis Ababa · See the Ethiopia profile · See the Addis Ababa profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 39% 71/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Founded in 2011 by three former GIZ staff, iceaddis became Ethiopia's first tech innovation hub. A decade on it reported supporting 160+ entrepreneurs and incubating 45 startups, and exported a "Hub-in-a-Box" model to Somalia, South Sudan and South Africa.

160+
Entrepreneurs supported (2011-2021)
45
Startups incubated
31
Startups accelerated
75+
Products launched by alumni
~300
Competitions, hackathons and networking events hosted
iceaddis — Ethiopia's First Innovation Hub and Startup Incubator

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
iceaddis
Period
2011–present
Keywords
startup incubation, technology entrepreneurship, ICT

Context

iceaddis was founded in Addis Ababa in 2011 by Markos Lemma, Florian Manderscheid and Oliver Petzoldt — three former staff of the German development agency GIZ — inspired by a visit to Nairobi's iHub, becoming Ethiopia's first dedicated tech innovation hub and startup incubator.

Objectives

To provide co-working space and structured incubation/acceleration support to Ethiopian tech entrepreneurs, and later to package this model for replication elsewhere.

Activities

iceaddis runs a co-working space and a six-month incubation programme (ice180), plus an acceleration track, competitions, hackathons and networking events. It later developed a "Hub-in-a-Box" consulting service to help other organisations and universities build their own innovation spaces.

Results

By its ten-year mark in 2021, iceaddis reported supporting more than 160 entrepreneurs, incubating 45 startups, accelerating 31 more, helping launch over 75 products, and hosting around 300 competitions, hackathons and networking events. The Hub-in-a-Box model was extended to South Sudan, South Africa and Somalia, and spawned sister hubs icecairo and icealex in Egypt.

Conclusions

The figures are self-reported and not independently audited, and no public data exists on the survival rate, revenue or jobs created by alumni startups — the evidence supports iceaddis's activity and longevity more strongly than its downstream economic impact.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Three GIZ-experienced co-founders, Hub programme/incubation managers

Conditions for success

  • Founders with prior development-sector networks (GIZ) to secure early partners
  • A recognisable structured incubation product (ice180) rather than open co-working alone
  • Packaging the operating model as a consulting product (Hub-in-a-Box) to generate replication and revenue

Common failure modes

  • No public data on alumni startup survival rate, revenue or jobs created
  • Reliance on donor/partner funding (GIZ, Mastercard Foundation, USAID, EU, UNIDO) rather than a proven self-sustaining revenue model

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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