Kilimo Fresh Wins $50,000 Equity Investment at MEST Africa Challenge Virtual Finals

Tanzanian start-up Kilimo Fresh, a digital distributor of fresh produce to hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, institutions, wholesalers, and export markets has been named the winner of the MEST Africa Challenge, winning US$50,000 in equity investment.

Moussa Africa and BAG Innovation came in as 1st and 2nd runner up respectively. Debo Engineering was announced as the winner of the first MEST Africa Challenge Community Choice, an award given to the startup with the most votes from the audience.  They will receive a fully-funded slot in one of MEST’s incubators, with access to its vast and international community as well as drool-worthy perks.

Start-ups from Ethiopia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa were selected to take part in the MEST Africa Challenge, run by Pan-African training programme, seed fund, incubator, and hub MEST Africa.

The country finals lasted two months, after which DeboEngineering (Ethiopia), Fundis (Kenya), Tutoo+(Côte d’Ivoire), BAG Innovation (Rwanda), Oniocha Ltd(Ghana), Kilimo fresh Foods Africa Limited (Tanzania), Mousso Africa(Senegal), Gradely (Nigeria) and PopUpShopShop (South Africa) emerged country winners, qualifying them to compete in the finale.

The judges for the final included MEST Africa’s very own CEO and founder – Jorn Lyseggen, Microsoft’s Senior Director for Software Partnerships – Chris Lwanga; the Founding Principal of Imaginable Futures – Teresa Mbagaya and Partner of TLcom Capital – Andreata Muforo. Each startup was assessed based on a variety of factors including value proposition, impact, size of the target market, customer identification, revenue model, competitor analysis, growth strategy, traction-to-date, and expertise of the founding team.

The challenge, which last year had three winners, offered the winning company US$50,000 in equity investment, plus access to Microsoft support, coaching, and a continent-wide network of start-up hubs.

After a virtual pitch event held today on August 12th, Tanzania’s Kilimo Fresh was named the winner. The start-up is developing digital farming solutions, and will now benefit from MEST support and funding.