Entrepreneurs from Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa emerged as the top winners at the seventh Africa’s Business Heroes (ABH) Grand Finale on December 13.
ABH, a flagship initiative of the Jack Ma Foundation, was held in partnership with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) as a two-day event attended by Jack Ma, founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, and RDB Chief Executive Officer Jean-Guy Afrika.
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Tanzania’s Diana Orembe, co-founder of NovFeed, whose company transforms food waste into sustainable agricultural inputs for farmers, claimed the grand prize, taking home $300,000 to scale her venture.
Expressing her excitement, Orembe explained how the funding will help expand their operations.
“This is truly incredible and transformational for our business. It gives us seed capital to expand our production of fish feed and organic fertiliser, which already has very high demand from customers.
“We have already taken major steps to scale production by improving logistics, building a large facility, and investing in machinery. We have impacted more than 3,000 farmers across the country, and we aim to reach at least 100,000 farmers by 2030.”
Kenya’s Abraham Mbuthia, CEO and co-founder of UzaPoint, a Nairobi-based digital bookkeeping platform, secured the first runner-up position, earning $250,000.
Mbuthia said his company, which has served over 3,500 businesses across
seven markets, aims to expand to 20 markets within the next five years.
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“We also want to grow the number of SMEs we transform to around 200,000. Many SMEs lack recognition and understanding of bookkeeping, so we plan to create training programmes and an SME campus where businesses can learn why bookkeeping matters and how to do it effectively.”
South Africa’s Adriaan Kruger, founder and CEO of NuvoteQ, a company focused on transforming clinical research across Africa through digital solutions, was named second runner-up, receiving $150,000.
Reflecting on his journey, Kruger said: “It is amazing being here. This was my second time applying to the competition. At first, I thought I couldn’t go through the process again, but the ABH team was just incredible. I’m so glad I reapplied.
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“I’m a big supporter of the startup community, and I hope to help others discover ABH and apply, especially students and early-stage entrepreneurs. Winning this is truly motivating.”
From a pool of 32,000 applicants across the continent, 10 entrepreneurs were selected, while the other seven finalists each received $100,000.
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Diane Karusisi, CEO of Bank of Kigali and one of the judges, commended the finalists for their innovation and impact.
She said the cohort featured 10 impressive entrepreneurs with diverse business ideas shaping the continent.
“As judges, we focused on solutions addressing critical problems facing Africa, but we also considered scalability. We wanted solutions that could make an impact beyond a local context. That is why we selected three winners.”
ABH has grown into one of Africa’s most inclusive and influential pitch competitions. It aims to spotlight and support entrepreneurs developing solutions to the continent’s most pressing challenges through grant funding, mentorship, and media exposure.
Originally launched as the Africa NetPreneur Prize Initiative, the competition is backed by a $10 million investment running from 2019 to 2029.