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Five start-ups have made it into the grand challenge of the 2022 MEST Africa Challenge pitch competition.
MEST Africa is a pan-African technology entrepreneur training program targeting to create the next Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg from the continent of over 1.5 billion people.
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All five start-ups made it from five African countries.
Kenya: Hisa
Senegal: Kweli
South Africa: Desert Green Africa
Nigeria: Sproutly
Ghana: Swoov
The start-ups are vying for mentorship and the grand prize of $50,000. The grand finale takes place in December at a demo day and final pitch competition. The competition has attracted thousands of applications from across the continent.
MEST Africa Challenge is managed by the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School in Accra, Ghana. MEST started in Ghana in 2008 and it is a 12-month program. Beneficiaries get seed funding to convert their ideas to products/services. They also get to enjoy long term management to ensure their business sustainability.
“We were able to beat it down to the best and select the top five firms from South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana, by this year’s selection criteria,” said organisers of the competition.
Initiated by Jorn Lyseggen, a serial entrepreneur, the program inculcate in startups skills that include software development, entrepreneurship management and communication.
