Christian Ngan,
Cameroonian
Founder, Madlyn Cazalis
After working in financial services in France, first as an analyst at French investment bank
Quilvest Group and as an associate at
Findercord
in Paris, Christian Ngan returned home to Cameroon to start his own
business in 2012. With $3,000 of his savings, he founded Madlyn Cazalis,
an African hand-made bio cosmetic company that produces body oils,
natural lotions, creams, scrubs, masks and soaps. Madlyn Cazalis
products are sold and distributed across more than 30 chemist stores,
beauty institutes and retail outlets in Cameroon and neighboring
countries in Central Africa. The company does not reveal revenues but
says it is profitable. Ngan, 30, is also founder of GoldskyPartners
Advisory, a small financial advisory firm in Cameroon.
Senai Wolderufael,
Ethiopian
Founder, Feed Green Ethiopia Exports Company
The 27 year-old Ethiopian entrepreneur is the founder of Feed Green
Ethiopia Exports Company, an Addis Ababa-based outfit that produces and
exports popular Ethiopian spice blends such as
Shiro, Mitmita, Korarima and
Berbere.
Wolderufael founded the company in 2012 primarily to serve the needs of
the Ethiopian diaspora in the United States and Europe, but as demand
for Ethiopian spices increased significantly, Feed Green began exporting
to new markets within Africa. The company employs only women.
Eric Kinoti,
Kenyan
Founder, Shades System East Africa
The 29 year-old Kenyan is the founder of
Shades System East Africa,
a $1 million (annual sales) company that manufactures military and
relief tents, branded gazebos, restaurant canopies, car parking shades,
marquees, luxury tents, wedding party tents canvas seats and bouncing
castles across the region. The company’s biggest clients are
non-governmental and humanitarian organizations. Based in Nairobi,
Shades System exports its products to Somalia, Congo and Rwanda. The
company says it is profitable and has 18 full-time employees.
Nick Kaoma,
South African
Founder, Head Honcho Clothing
South Africa’s own Daymond John in the making, Nick Kaoma is building
an urban legend. The 28 year-old Cape Town native is the founder and
creative director of
Head Honcho clothing,
a prominent South African lifestyle brand that designs, manufactures
and markets streetwear clothing that is hugely popular among South
Africa’s young urban dwellers. The company’s product line includes
t-shirts and caps to cardigans, varsity jackets, hoodies, tank tops and
female dresses.
Ronak Shah,
Kenyan
Founder, Kronex Chemicals Ltd
Shah, a 26 year old Asian-Kenyan, is the founder of
Kronex Chemicals Ltd,
a fast-growing manufacturer of low-cost household cleaning products.
Shah founded Kronex in January 2013 and the company has two products- a
dishwashing liquid and a multi-purpose detergent, both of which are
gaining market share amongst Kenya’s lower middle-class.
Issam Chleuh,
Malian
Founder, Africa Impact Group
Issam Chleuh, a 27 year-old Malian national and former Ernst &
Young Senior Associate, is the founder of the Africa Impact Group
, an
international organization focused on directing investment to socially
and environmentally beneficial ventures, an asset class called Impact
Investing. The company’s services include data & research, news,
advisory services, and start-up incubation. Africa Impact
Group’s clients include impact investors, private equity firms, family
offices, leading African corporations, governments and nonprofits.
Patrick Ngowi, Tanzanian
Founder, Helvetic Group
Patrick Ngowi, 29 is the founder of
Helvetic Group, a company that pioneered the supply, installation and maintenance of solar systems in
Tanzania’s
Northern Circuit. Helvetic Solar Contractors continues to grow.
Helvetic did more than $5 million in revenues in 2013 and KPMG East
Africa recently valued the company at $15 million. Helvetic is also
expanding into the South African region and Ngowi is gearing up to take
the company to Dar es Salaam’s capital markets.
Heshan de Silva, Kenyan
Founder, DSGVenCap
After dropping out from school in the United States, Heshan de Silva,
25, worked briefly for a tea exporting company owned by his parents
before breaking out to start
VenCap, a business that sold travel
insurance bundled into long distance bus tickets. The company became
profitable very quickly, grossing over $1 million in revenues within its
first year and setting the pace for travel insurance for bus commuters
in Kenya. He is now a venture capitalist and the founder of
DSGVenCap, a company that makes seed investments in the tech, media, agribusiness and consumer industries in Kenya.
Julie Alexander Fourie,
South African
Founder, iFix
At 26, Julie Alexander Fourie runs a company that employs 40 people
and services more than 4,000 clients a month. Fourie is the founder of
iFix,
which repairs and services all Apple products and Samsung Smartphones.
iFix has branches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Fourie started
the company in 2006 from his dorm room at the University of
Stellenbosch, helping colleagues and friends repaid broken and faulty
iPods and computers. Satisfied friends subsequently referred other Apple
product owners in search of repairs and Fourie’s business took off.
Sangu Delle,
Ghanaian
Founder, Golden Palm Investments
Delle, 27 is a co-founder of
Golden Palm Investments,
a holding company that invests in early stage venture and growth
financing across Africa with a strong bias for Real Estate, healthcare,
agribusiness and technology. GPI has backed startups such as Solo Mobile
in Nigeria, mPharma in Ghana and Zamsolar in Zambia. He is also the
co-founder of
cleanacwa, a
non-profit working to provide access to clean water in Ghana’s
underdeveloped regions. Sangu, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs,
Morgan Stanley and Valiant Capital Partners, is currently an MBA
candidate at Harvard.
Uche Pedro,
Nigerian
Founder, BellaNaija
The 29 year-old Nigerian media entrepreneur is the founder of
BellaNaija, a thriving new media company that develops online media
content for African (primarily Nigerian) audiences.
BellaNaija.com is Nigeria’s premier lifestyle, entertainment and fashion website, and garners an average of 10 million page views every month.
Tebogo Ditshego,
South African
Founder, Ditshego Media
The 29 year-old South African public relations maverick is the founder of
Ditshego Media,
a leading PR firm specializing in Media Relations, Investor Relations,
Reputation Management and Corporate Communications. Ditshego is also the
Chairman of the South African Reading Foundation.
Bankole Cardoso, Nigerian
CEO, EasyTaxi Nigeria
Cardoso, 25, is the founder of the Nigerian operations of EasyTaxi, a
taxi mobile App that was founded in Brazil in 2012 by German technology
startup incubator, Rocket Internet GmBH. EasyTaxi serves to connect cab
drivers and would-be passengers. Through the App, passengers can
confirm their pickup point and then order a cab at the click of a
button. EasyTaxi sends the passenger a confirmation of the name and
phone number of your driver and gives passengers the option of tracking
their driver and the vehicle in real-time. Before setting up EasyTaxi in
Nigeria, Cardoso worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Carlyle
Group in New York.
Isaac Oboth, Ugandan
Founder, Media256
Isaac Oboth, 24, is the founder and CEO of Media 256 LTD, a film and
television production company in East Africa. Media 256 was founded in
2011 and has a client list that includes Coca Cola, UNDP, USAID, the
Ethiopian Commodities Exchange, Marie Stopes International, the African
Leadership Network, and the African Leadership Academy. The company says
it is profitable and employs 7 full-time videographers and editors.
Isaac is also an Anzisha Prize Fellow, a pan-African award that
celebrates innovative young African entrepreneurs.
Barclay Paul,
Kenyan
Founder/CEO Impact Africa Industries
The 22 year-old Kenyan is the founder of Impact Africa Industries, a
company that produces low cost sanitary pads for poor women in informal
settlements Kenya three years ago and he now sells the pads to as far as
Uganda and South Sudan. The company is located in Kitale, a small town
in Western Kenya and has 23 employees, 15 of whom are women who help in
production and distribution of the sanitary pads. Paul was an Anzisha
Prize Fellow in 2013.
Seth Akumani,
Ghanaian
Co-founder and CEO, ClaimSync
Akumani, 30 is a co-founder of
ClaimSync,
an end-to-end claims processing software that enables hospitals,
clinics and other healthcare facilities all over the world to automate
patients’ medical records and to process records electronically.
Claimsync’s solution allows these healthcare providers to easily prepare
medical claims and send electronically to health insurance companies.
In 2013 ClaimSync was the sole African company to participate in the
high-profile, IBM, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline backed Accelerator program
HealthXL in Dublin. ClaimSync was recently acquired by
GenKey, a Dutch-based biometrics company.
Jonathan Liebmann, South African
Real Estate developer, CEO of Propertuity
The 29 year-old South African visionary is the
Managing Director of
Propertuity, a South African Real Estate development company and the brains behind the construction of the
Maboneng Precinct,
a thriving cultural district in the east side of Johannesburg’s CBD.
Once a neglected and deteriorating neighborhood housing abandoned
industrial complexes, Liebmann transformed Maboneng into a vibrant urban
mixed-use community complete with Art galleries, artist studios, retail
spaces, offices and artist studios.
Tunde Kehinde,
Nigerian
Co-founder, Jumia Nigeria
The 30 year-old Harvard MBA grad recently stepped down as co-founder
of Jumia Nigeria, the country’s largest online retailer. Kehinde founded
Kasuwa, a Nigerian online retailer in 2012. Within days of its
founding, Kasuwa received seed funding from German online startup
incubator and the company’s name was changed to Jumia. Kehinde resigned
in January to start a logistics company.
Adii Pienaar, South African
Founder, Woothemes
Adii Pienaar, 28, is the founder of
Woothemes,
a company that designs and develops customizable commercial themes and
plugins for WordPress. Adii built the business with a bootstrap budget,
and the company today generates over $3 million in annual revenues from
the sale of its themes. Woothemes also develops and sells themes for
other content management systems, including Tumblr. Pienaar also runs
PublicBeta, a service that allows successful entrepreneurs to transfer knowledge to new startups.
Zaheer Cassim,
South African
Founder, One Way Up Productions
29 year-old South African media entrepreneur Zaheer Cassim graduated
from Columbia’s Journalism school and returned home to South Africa to
found
One Way Up Productions,
a television production outfit with a client list that includes Ogilvy
South Africa, Hollard Insurance, the African Leadership Academy and
Hackett.
Mike Muthiga,
Kenyan
Founder, Fatboy Animation
Muthiga, 26, is the founder of
Fatboy Animation,
a Nairobi-based animation company that produces 3 and 2 dimensional
animation for both film and commercial use. FatBoy Animations has
produced several viral animated commercials for Kenyan blue chips like
brands such as Safaricom, Telkom Orange, Barclays Bank and Jamii
Telecommunications (JTL).
Danson Muchemi,
Kenyan
Founder, WebTribe
Muchemi, 29, is the founder of
WebTribe Kenya,
a leading IT company in Kenya with operations in online payment
systems, web applications and network security. Webtribe’s flagship
company,
Jambopay provides
e-payments services for e-commerce players as well as e-ticketing
services and electronic cash disbursement services. Jambopay is a
recipient of the Google Innovation Awards in Financial Services for
2013.
Kunmi Otitoju,
Nigerian
Founder, Minku Design
Kunmi, a 30 year-old Nigerian fashion entrepreneur is the founder of
Minku Design, a company that makes leather bags for men and women by subtly blending
Aso-oke
fabric (a hand loomed cloth woven by Nigeria’s Yoruba people), into
contemporary leather bag designs. Minku also makes Yoruba-themed leather
purses and jewelry. All Minku Design’s products are hand-made at a
workshop in Barcelona, Spain, but they are sold at high-end stores in
Nigeria and on the company’s
website.
Mazen Helmy,
Egyptian
Founder, The District
27 year-old Mazen Helmy is the founder of
The District,
one of the first co-working spaces in Egypt and one of the few in the
region. The District provides an inspiring workspace (sitting on a
total area of almost 1000 square meters) for entrepreneurs and
freelancers. Helmy founded the company in 2011.
Khaled Shady,
Egyptian
Founder, Mubser
The 22 year-old Egyptian entrepreneur is the founder of
Mubser,
a new assistive tool for blind people. Mubser, which will be launched
officially in March 2014, is a wearable belt with a Bluetooth-connected
headset that leverages RGB imaging and infrared dept data captured by a
3D depth camera that allows blind and visually impaired people to
navigate around in a safe and easy way. The device recognizes object and
obstacles such as staircases and chairs.
Joel Mwale,
Kenyan
Founder, Skydrop Enterprises
Mwale who is now 21 years old founded SkyDrop Enterprises, a
rainwater filtration and bottling company which produces low-cost
purified drinking water, milk and other dairy products in Kenya. In
2012, Mwale
sold a 60% stake
in Skydrop to an Israeli firm for $500,000. Next stop: Education. Last
year Mwale founded Gigavia, an educational social networking website.
Lorna Rutto,
Kenyan
Founder, Ecopost Kenya
In 2010, Lorna Rutto, 28, founded Ecopost, a Kenyan company that
collects consumer plastic waste such as polypropylene and polyethylene
and converts them into durable, easy to use and environmentally friendly
plastic lumber, an eco-friendly alternative to timber which is used to
manufacture fencing posts.
Ashley Uys,
South African
Founder, Medical Diagnostech
Ashley Uys, 30, founded
Medical Diagnostech which
develops and markets affordable and reliable medical test kits for
malaria, pregnancy, syphilis, malaria, HIV/ Aids for South Africa’s
rural poor. Uys is a recipient of the South African Breweries $100,000
Annual Social Innovation Awards.
Kimiti Wanjaria, Kenyan
Founders, Serene Valley Properties
Kimiti Wanjaria, 30, is a co-founder of
Serene Valley Properties (SVP),
a Real Estate development company in Nairobi that constructs and sells
residential properties to Kenya’s ever-growing middle class. SVP is
behind the development of
Sigona Valley project, a $4 million gated residential community outside Nairobi.
Arthur Zang,
Cameroonian
Founder, Cardiopad
Zang, a 26 year-old Cameroonian Engineer is the inventor of the
Cardiopad, a
touch screen medical tablet that enables heart examinations such as the
electrocardiogram (ECG) to be performed at remote, rural locations
while the results of the test are transferred wirelessly to specialists
who can interpret them. The device spares African patients living in
remote areas the trouble of having to travel to urban centers to seek
medical examinations. Zang is the founder of Himore Medical Equipments,
the company that owns the rights to the Cardiopad.
via
Forbes Africa
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