Richard Zulu

Richard Zulu is the CEO and Team Principal at Outbox, an innovation and entrepreneurship support organization that brings together the capital, knowledge, infrastructure, and people necessary to help small  and growing businesses to succeed. Outbox is one of the oldest Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support Organizations (IESOs) in Uganda, coming to 12 years of existence, working with over 400 businesses in 2024 alone, and having supported them to access over $4.4M in 2023.
Richard Zulu is currently overseeing the NSSF Hi-innovator, an initiative of Uganda’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF), implemented by Outbox in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The $10M initiative seeks to unlock affordable financing for up-to 500 small and growing businesses in Uganda Richard Zulu is also the chairperson of Startup Uganda, an association of 28 innovation and entrepreneurship support organizations working together to improve collective capacities, influence, and impact, and to create a more enabling environment for innovators and entrepreneurs.
His career spans over fourteen years with roles in technology, business analysis and business development support. He has extensive experience in enterprise development support, , program implementation, commercializing products, design thinking, and financing for small and growing businesses.  He has also previously supported policy formulation as a member of the Business Process Outsourcing and Innovation Council under the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance.