Grace Ashiru
A pan-African technology entrepreneur training program has announced the five start-ups from five nations that will compete in the 2022 MEST Africa Challenge pitch competition.
Sproutly from Nigeria, Kweli from Senegal, Swoove from Ghana, Hisa from Kenya, and Desert Green Africa from South Africa are the start-ups that made it. The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School in Accra, Ghana, is in charge of the MEST Africa Challenge.
In July this year, pre-seed and seed-stage technology start-ups could enter the pan-African pitch competition to compete for the top prize of $50,000. They had to give regional pitches and talk to the founders to get this far.
The top five will now represent their country in December at a demo day and final pitch competition.
“But In the long run, we were able to beat it down to the bestt and select the top five firms from South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana, by this year’s selection criteria.” Our staff is excited to work closely with each of the five finalists to prepare for the competition’s final day in December.”.”
Since the competition began, people from all over the continent have sent thousands of applications. It has brought attention to and helped grow winning start-ups like Kilimo Fresh in Tanzania, OZE in Ghana, Snode Technologies in South Africa, Waya in Kenya, and Account in Nigeria.
MEST is a 12-month program started in Ghana in 2008 by serial entrepreneur Jorn Lyseggen. It teaches Africa’s rising tech talent essential skills in software development, business, and communication.
It gives seed funding to the best ideas from the program and continues to help its portfolio companies grow and improve.
