Heritage · Spin-out · Today's relationship
Five years inside Innovation Village. Now independent.
Future Lab was incubated within Innovation Village Group from 2021. Innovation Village Group (IVG), founded in Uganda in 2015, is a pan-African innovation infrastructure operator: a group whose ventures include MoTIV, Innovation Village Hub, and Innovation District, with capability across hubs, programme delivery, ecosystem networks, and venture activity. After five years of building and refining the methodology inside IVG, Future Lab spun out as an independent firm in May 2026. The spin-out is a demonstration of the methodology: finding trapped value, structuring it as an independent venture, and launching it.
A decade of ecosystem building.
Innovation Village Group operates as a group of ventures across innovation infrastructure, including MoTIV, Innovation Village Hub and Innovation District. Together they sit on a foundation of programme delivery, ecosystem orchestration, and partnerships across sectors and geographies. The figures below are drawn from IVG's published track record.
The spin-out
Why Future Lab became independent.
Founded in 2015, Innovation Village Group had accumulated years of evidence about what worked in African market innovation, and what did not. The strategic advisory and venture-building capability that had been built within it to deliver complex programmes was a distinct asset, with distinct economics and a distinct client base.
The methodology Future Lab now applies to clients was first applied to its own parent. The trapped value was identified, the venture model was structured, the spin-out was executed. Future Lab became operationally independent.
It is a proof of concept. The methodology works because we have used it on ourselves before applying it to anyone else.
Today's relationship
A continuing strategic relationship.
Today the relationship is structural rather than transactional. The formal governance and ownership arrangements that follow from the spin-out framework remain in place; brand and operating independence are preserved on both sides. IVG refers community ventures from across the group into the Venture Market Access Programme. Future Lab may co-host events and challenges at IVG hubs, and may draw on hub infrastructure for client-facing work under commercial arrangements. No referral fees pass between the two; value is captured through heritage, the spin-out framework, and the compounding ecosystem reputation both organisations contribute to. Both organisations actively safeguard the distinctiveness and independence of each brand. The present-day relationship is also described on the About page.
Governance
Independent operating direction.
Future Lab's commercial decisions and engagement direction are set independently. The structure of the relationship between Future Lab and IVG, including the formal governance and ownership arrangements that follow from the spin-out, is shared during the first working session. Prospective clients and partners receive the detail where it is material to the engagement.
Engage with us directly.
The heritage is the methodology behind the work. The work itself starts with a working session: listening before recommending, scoped to the situation in front of you.
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