Agricultural technology start-ups have become one of the most active segments of the East African innovation economy, yet women-led ventures remain a small minority of those receiving investment and scaling successfully. Drawing on interviews with 45 founders in Kenya and Uganda, this paper maps ecosystem barriers and enablers for women-led agri-tech start-ups. The study adopted a qualitative design informed by entrepreneurial ecosystem theory and conducted semi-structured interviews between August and December 2025 with founders of ventures operating in input supply, farm advisory, market linkage, agri-fintech and post-harvest technology. Transcripts were analysed thematically, and barriers and enablers were classified across the finance, human capital, market, support, policy and cultural domains of the ecosystem. Access to early-stage finance and mentorship networks emerge as the most decisive factors, cited by the large majority of founders as determining whether a venture progressed beyond the pilot stage. Founders described gendered investor perceptions, collateral requirements and the absence of pre-seed capital as the principal financial barriers, and access to experienced mentors and peer networks as the principal enabler of survival and growth. Regulatory clarity is a secondary concern, raised mainly by founders in agri-fintech and input certification who had reached a later stage of development. Kenyan founders reported a denser support environment than Ugandan founders but similar financing gaps. The paper proposes an ecosystem intervention agenda that prioritises gender-responsive pre-seed finance and structured mentorship, and discusses implications for accelerators, investors and policymakers in the region.