Uganda, April 5 -- Investors have long been number-crunching on the plausible returns they fetch from Uganda's private-equity investments.

They are now holding back, forcing several local startups to significantly downscale or stutter completely.

Last year, as many pushed to hold their companies to break even while also keeping them profitable, seven startups succeeded in raising $4.17m (Shs16b) from several investors across the globe, positioning Uganda at seventh among the countries with the most secured startup funding in Africa.

This, however, according to DisruptAfrica, a startup data portal, represented a 94 percent decrease from $69.31m (Shs266.6b) 22 startups pooled in 2022, in addition to the exit of some equity investors such...