Meet our MEST Africa Challenge Ghana Country Finals Judges
On July 1st, 2020, the MEST Africa Challenge: Ghana finals will bring together the best and brightest entrepreneurs from around the country to pitch their startup ventures to a panel of expert judges.
Join MEST, Microsoft, and Ghanaian ecosystem partners Ghana Tech Lab, Stanbic Incubator, and Hacklab Foundation in the search to find Ghana’s next great tech startup!
Judges for the country finals in nine different markets across the continent — Ethiopia, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria, and South Africa, include local investors, business leaders, and community players. Here is a closeup of the MEST Africa Challenge Ghana Country Finals judges, who will select the winning pitch to make it to the MEST Africa-wide finals to compete for $50,000 in equity investment.
Sewu-Steve Tawia
Angel Investor, VBAN Accra Angels
Sewu-Steve is an investment professional with over 20 years of professional experience in development finance, consulting, impact investing, venture capital and private equity funds investing, and angel and early-stage investing both in Europe and Africa. — A fully bilingual English-French, Sewu-Steve has managed more than US$ 360m of investments and catalyzed over US$100m in investments into more than 200 SMEs across 26 countries in Africa. He is an alumnus of London Business School, Audencia Business School, and has an Executive leadership certificate from Stanford GSB. Sewu-Steve is also an active angel investor and mentors to startups in Fintech, Healthtech, Edtech, Agritech, Insuretech, and renewable energy across in East, West, and Southern Africa, notably through VBAN, Accra Angels and other angels/investor networks.
Kwaku Owusu
Business Development Advisor, Shell Foundation
Kwaku joined Shell Foundation in April 2017 and is working across multiple portfolios with a focus on West Africa. Kwaku supports a range of partners in various aspects of their business. Kwaku started his career in the asset management industry working with Fidelity Investments. Prior to joining Shell Foundation, he spent five years in Shell Trading working in global crude and products trading across market risk, FX, and credit risk. Kwaku has a BA in Finance, Accounting, and Management from the University of Nottingham and is a Charted Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 2 candidate.
Katjana Kammin
Head of Portfolio, MEST
Katjana is a portfolio manager at MEST Africa, an Africa-wide venture incubator headquartered in Accra. As a portfolio manager, she guides young entrepreneurs in the areas of business growth strategy, fundraising, and finance. She worked with several startups and did portfolio management for an angel investor. She also is part of the mentor network of a US-based startup that provides education financing for students in different education programs. Besides her passion for entrepreneurship and venture capital, she has a strong interest in nature, culture, and sports including surfing, tennis, and golf.
Sam Green
Venture Partner, MEST
Originally from Western Canada, Sam graduated with a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Calgary, specializing in fiscal, economic, and regulatory policy. Spending the first several years of his career in business development and government relations role in the Canadian agriculture industry, Sam developed a strong interest in the intersection between traditional industries and emerging technologies. After completing his thesis — which explored blockchain as applied to agri-food markets — Sam began searching for opportunities to leverage such technologies in a positive and impactful way. He found MEST.
Sam now works as a MEST Portfolio Associate, helping MEST founders and companies with support in areas such as regulatory compliance, sales planning, and customer acquisition strategies.
MEST Africa Challenge Ghana Country Finals
Join MEST and Microsoft on July 1st for the Ghana Country Finals of the MEST Africa Challenge. The top tech startup from the Ghana finals will go on to compete against winners from eight other countries including Nigeria, Côte D’Ivoire, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, and Rwanda, for the chance to win $50,000 in equity investment and to join MEST’s Africa-wide startup support network. bit.ly/mestafricachallenge2020
