Portfolio: HiiL Justice Accelerator

We run and operate the HiiL Justice Accelerator programme and its related activities in East Africa by scouting for and supporting innovators resolving and preventing justice pressing needs. This is a four-month programme that provides up to 10,000 EUR non-equity, non-debt,  grant funding, business development support (which includes training, coaching and mentorship), access to a global network, international exposure, and connections for further investment opportunities for startups

The portfolio of startups we are supporting in 2022:

E-Arbitrator

Rwanda/SMEs

E-Arbitrator is a digital platform where businesses, organisations and individuals anywhere can find and engage with qualified Arbitrators, Mediators or Alternative Dispute Resolution specialists, submit their case documents and have the issue resolved all online.

Nyumbani Online

Kenya / Housing

Nyumbani Online digitises rent payments and prevents disputes between tenant and property owner to ensure both tenants’ and property owner’s rights. It eliminates payment fraud and unjustifiable rent increments.

Mama Fua

Kenya / Theft, employment, gender

Mama Fua vets and trains domestic workers and connects them to clients. The startup also provides services during employment including legal cases of harassment or poor working conditions.

XanaHealth

Rwanda / Fraud

XanaHealth digitises health facilities, patient records and invoices as well as insurance claims. It prevents and detects insurance fraud.

Silqu

Kenya / Housing

Silqu connects landlords, tenants, property developers, managers and other stakeholders through an advanced cloud based platform with 100% visibility of all related transactions.

Legal Point Services

Kenya/Multiple Issues

Legal Point Services is a virtual workspace for legal services. Individuals or businesses can sign up to access legal service from verified lawyers on Legal Point. 

The portfolio of startups we have supported (2017 - 2022)

  1. KYR Africa: Africa is a social justice platform seeking to provide 20 million Africans with access to user-friendly, affordable justice education and advice on their individual freedoms and rights by 2030.

  2. Upesy – A Safer World: Upesy World is committed to creating A Safer World. We created Upesy, which is a mobile app that more efficiently connects people to reliable emergency response services. Our goal is to bring together the best providers and all their emergency response services on a single platform, to achieve more coordinated and better response times for emergencies.

  3. Vindex Systems Ltd:  A Kenyan start-up employing technology to secure motorcycles and vehicles in Kenya.

  4. We Are More: It is a digital platform in Kenya, providing legal aid to justice seekers by giving them information, access to advocates and mediators.

  1. Peleza International is a company, based in Kenya that solely specializes in Background Screening. Our solutions include Company Due Diligence, Education Verification, Identity Checks, Criminal Verification, Right to Work Verification, Employment Verification, Financial Verification, Driving Verification, and Professional Verification. They use official and reliable national and international data sources to screen candidates while complying with the privacy legislation in force.
  2. Kakuma Ventures is a platform that enables African refugees to become entrepreneurs. They have 10-15 individuals in Kakuma, Kenya refugee camp with a population of 200,000 and growing rapidly. Their goal is to build sustainable businesses that provide healthy food, clean water, logistics services, healthcare, education, shelter, clothing, and technology services. By doing this they enhance their lives and also create jobs.
  3. Exuus inspires resilience and enables communities to achieve their optimal satisfaction by positively impacting the future. We endeavor to create products that are ideal in every possible way. Products that excite, that are easy to use, and powerful. The same passion for innovation translates into our zeal to grow as an eco-friendly company – therefore, throughout our engagements with clients, we raise awareness for environmental responsibility.
  4. Utatuzi Center (UC) is a highly innovative web-based platform created on the acknowledgment that disputes are inherent and inevitable to human beings and that they will arise in our lives and our businesses at any time. Our platform is API-enabled, meaning that the platform will be integrated into our clients’ compatible backend to allow automatic notifications, response, and tracking of disputes at the comfort of their desktops.
  1. Sheria Kiganjani (law on your palm) is an innovative and online legal digital platform which enables an individual, a student, lawyer, or a group of people to access legal information as well as materials despite their location. An end-user can access various legal articles, materials, news, reported cases, Acts, legal documents, and information via our website or Sheria Kiganjani android application.
  2. ESS (Essential Social Services) Creative and Legal Foundation, is an innovative approach to enable poor communities to access justice at affordable upkeeping. This is done by providing affordable coverage for the upkeeping fees(including expenses incurred) by a panel of Advocates representing clients in court proceedings.
  3. Tenrent provides simple and clear tenancy agreements with arbitration clauses and resolves any disputes between tenants and landlords.
  1. Btrack global provides vehicle tracking and fuel sensors. It offers solutions for Cars, trucks, tractors, Boda Boda, and more. It offers features like real-time tracking, ease of access from remote locations, using mobile apps, fuel consumption management, fatigue monitoring, and more.
  2. Viamo connects individuals and organizations to make better decisions. We envision a world where all people have access to the information they need to make decisions for healthy, prosperous lives and have meaningful relationships with governments, civil society, and businesses
  1. The Usalama app is a platform that connects users and emergency service providers (ambulance, security, police, road-side assistance) in a quick and efficient manner, utilizing real-time user data, and an integrated web-based back-end portal.
  2. Mulika Hongo is a globally recognized campaign that strives to promote and facilitate citizen participation in anonymously reporting bribery and corruption by any government official. 
  1. Sauti Africa. A mobile-based trade and market information place, empowering East Africa’s women-led SMEs to trade safely, legally, and profitably across the borders.
  2. Ushahidi is an open-source software application that utilizes user-generated reports to collate and map data. It uses the concept of crowdsourcing serving as an initial model for what has been coined as “activist mapping” – the combination of social activism, citizen journalism, and geographic information.

Portfolio: Justice Innovation Circles

We run and operate the Justice Innovation Circles (J.I.C) programme and its related activities in East Africa by scouting for and supporting innovators resolving and preventing justice pressing needs. The Justice Innovation Circle is the key training component of the Justice Entrepreneurship School Incubation programme. The incubation programme is for startups that fit into the incubation stage, meaning there is a basic product, an MVP, but there is no traction, that is, the product is still not in the hand of users, or it’s only in hands of a small number of early adopter users, where we still do not see enough evidence that this product or business can work. In terms of the team status, there is a possibility that the team is also not yet solidified, where the size is 2 or 3, and new co-founders are coming in or leaving.

2021 J.I.C Cohorts

  1. We Are More: It is a digital platform in Kenya, providing legal aid to justice seekers by giving them information, access to advocates and mediators.
  2. Legal Compass: We provide legal information on digital platforms. We provide this by way of Articles, a database of relevant government offices and Non-Governmental Organisations that can assist on different issues, through one-minute videos on YouTube (video also in sign language) as well as a Facebook
    page.
  3. Mycomplykit: is an online tool that enables anyone who collects personal data to determine their compliance with data protection laws and privacy, protection of their customers and employees data. Mycomplykit offers tools for compliance based on a user’s profile and specific information.
  1. Kibera shoes have 2 main product offerings: K-Shoes brand which makes different types of shoes including official shoes, school shoes, and casual shoes, and K-shoes Mini MBA program accelerator which provides training programs to reintegrate youth who have been released from prison as well as women living with disability by giving them relevant skills to start a business that will generate income for them. 
  2. Simba SOS: They have an existing mobile application that helps in crime reporting by alerting your emergency contact in case you are in danger through the SOS button and also provides a medium to record video evidence of a crime through the SIMBA helper alert button as it alerts every SIMBA SOS app user within 100 meters of your location to record the crime. It serves as a digital community security platform.
  3. Wakili 101: Wakili 101 is a web-based app platform that ensures easier access to legal services i.e access to an Advocate and easy access to legal information. Also provides a platform for Advocates to network within themselves to gain access to specialized information and trends. 
  4. AFECS: A security intelligent barrier system that uses an A.I called Apollo to identify faces. It provides a security feature that gives one access control for the building to allow people in and a face I.D feature that can trace the faces of people who enter
    the building including faces registered on other Apollo devices in other buildings.
  5. Tumaini Innovation Center: Our business sells energy-efficient, low-cost, customizable solar intruder alert systems to low and middle-income consumers, particularly those living in the slums of Eldoret, Kenya. 
  6. Nairobi Legal Insight: They share simplified legal content and make it accessible to students as legal resources and to the general public as legal information and legal consultancy through live video sessions.
  1. Wakili Chapchap: is a legal self-help platform providing a friendly guide to help users i.e individuals and SMEs draft their own simple legal documents at an affordable cost as well as link them up with legal professionals on the platform.
  2. Pata Wakili: is a Web-based Application developed using Progressive Web Application (PWA) technology that seeks to enhance access to justice by both Individuals and corporate persons in Kenya by providing an easy-to-use, convenient and adaptable platform for legal services. It provides a one-stop-shop for legal services that provide real-time access to legal service providers.
  3. Sheria Online: is an edu-tech platform that provides simplified legal information as well as provides legal services on the platform. It provides legal information through its blog page, resource center, and e-bookshop while it provides a platform to link people with legal needs with Advocates.
  4. Wakili Connect: is a digital platform that improves access to justice through mitigating logistical constraints, reducing cost and delays in the prosecution of cases by giving legal practitioners a platform delegate briefs to advocates in remote areas.
  5. MyShambaDigital: aims to make conveyancing and matters related to the management of land assets easier by providing a team of professionals involved in the conveyancing field at the beck and call for its users.
  6. Urban Tech For Hope: is an Innovation Hub that has innovations in a Digital Healthcare Platform known as m-kliniki App that provides efficient and effective accessibility of everyday Urgent and Primary Health needs. m-Kliniki provides users immediate access to everyday health needs and services around Pediatric Health Services, Mental Health, Gender-Based Violence, HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Health.
  7. Zero Harassments: SDG Goal 5, Gender violence as one of the issues and deeply rooted in our norms and customs with girls and women being the most victims of harassment and violence. Zero harassments, therefore, tend to provide awareness and ensure safe reporting space to victims of gender violence regardless of their gender.

User-friendly justice: Let's work on it together.

5.1 billion people do not have adequate access to justice. That is two-thirds of the world population. Around the globe, justice systems are often perceived as complex, unreachable, hard to understand, and too expensive. At HiiL, we want to solve this problem. We strive to make justice systems more user-friendly. Through data, innovation, and transformation, we work towards a world where people can prevent or resolve their justice problems easily, but we cannot achieve this goal alone. We can only do what we do with your help. Join the collective effort. Join us in our path towards making user-friendly justice a reality.

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