Meet our MEST Africa Challenge Rwanda Country Finals Judges

On June 24th, 2020, the MEST Africa Challenge: Rwanda Country Finals will bring together the best and brightest entrepreneurs to pitch their startup ventures to a panel of expert judges.

Join MEST, Microsoft, and Rwandan ecosystem partners 250 Startups, and Impact Hub in the search to find Rwanda’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 Rwanda 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.

Ashwin Ravichandran

MD, MEST

Ashwin currently works with 40+ African tech companies based out of the MEST Africa incubator network in Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town and 60 entrepreneurs in training to support them in launching their startups across the continent.

He joined MEST in 2015 as a Technology Teaching Fellow and has since served as the Incubator Manager for MEST Accra and Director of Portfolio Support and Country Director of Ghana. With a background in Computer Science and Engineering and previous experience working in the innovation team at Honeywell and building startups in India, Ashwin brings extensive technical knowledge to his executive management experience at MEST.

In his role as Director of Portfolio Support, Ashwin has overseen the growth and development of highly successful MEST portfolio companies such as Complete Farmer, Asoriba, Leti Arts and Kudobuzz, working to maximize their growth and success in terms of business development, product management and raising further rounds of funding.

Muthoni Wachira

Founding Partner at Hummingbird

Muthoni is an experienced finance professional, senior executive, and non-executive board member with expertise in driving economic development in Africa through investments and strategic partnerships. As the youngest board member of Kenya Markets Trust, drive key efforts to transform the country’s agricultural sector. She is the Investment Director-Africa for EWB Ventures, where she oversees a portfolio of ventures implementing disruptive business models and innovative technology across multiple sectors to build stable, long-term viability.

As an entrepreneur with a deep understanding of African culture as well as issues surrounding gender and social responsibility, she offers unique insights and strategies to capture new opportunities that provide high returns to investors whilst delivering critical services, products, and technologies to underserved populations. She is highly adept at embracing changing market dynamics, driving transformation efforts, and building governance structures from the ground up. Furthermore, her startup experience allows her to leverage an agile and flexible approach to quickly adapt to evolving economic landscapes.

Herve Kubwimana

Accelerator Program Manager at MERCK

Herve’s career covers Innovation Management, New Business Building, and Venture Growth across Africa and Europe. He is supporting ideas to grow and scale up to the next-generation business as Accelerator Program Manager at Merck KGaA. Prior to joining Merck, he worked for a collection of incubators, accelerators, and investment funds supporting startups and SMEs across East-Africa. He is doing a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, & Technological Transformation at WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management. He holds a Master’s in Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship from Cardiff University, and a Certificate in Venture Finance from the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School.

Fredrick Andersson

Norrsken Fund

Fredrick started his career in emerging market investments at technology venture capital firm Knife Capital in South Africa. Thereafter he spent several years at technology incubator MEST Africa working closely with early-stage software entrepreneurs from across the continent thus gaining a deep understanding of the technology landscape in Africa. Prior to joining Norrsken, Fredrik managed the investment portfolio of emerging market tech investor Seedstars.

Charles Shyaka

General Manager at 250STARTUPS

Mr. Shyaka joined 250STARTUPS when it started in April 2018 as the coordinator of the program overseeing the incubation program and ensuring the startups were given the right services from the consulting companies, training the associates to the incubation specialists and guiding the founders in business development. In 2019 he was promoted to the general manager of the hub in charge of overseeing the program.
Previously, Charles worked as a Business Development and Marketing Manager at N-Frnds for 3 years. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Rwanda majoring in Marketing and completed the ‘’Mastering Design Thinking’’ course from MIT. While in N-Frnds he was leading a USAID funded project named PSDAG which was aimed at supporting farmers in financial inclusion by digitizing different value chains in rural areas but also upskilling youth in rural areas with digital practical skills.

He also worked as the operations manager at Leapr labs; a deep tech research lab based in Rwanda where he was supporting tech startups from ideation to investable stage and his main role was to recruit startups and manage all the operations of the incubation program. Charles was one of the pioneers of the 250STARTUPS where he was involved in the creation of the concept, securing funds from JICA, and implementing the proposed plan. Charles is passionate about mentoring entrepreneurs; he is involved in different mentorship programs both local and international such as 250STARTUPS, University of Rwanda under innovation and startups promotion, IPRC Tumba, Dhaker, and Tony Elumelu.

MEST Africa Challenge Country Finals: Rwanda

Join MEST and Microsoft on June 24th for the Rwanda Country Finals of the MEST Africa Challenge. Startup finalists will pitch their business ventures to a panel of expert judges made up of leaders, investors, and ecosystem partners. The best from the Rwanda finals will go on to compete against winners from eight other countries including Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Senegal for $50,000 in equity investment and a chance to join MEST’s Africa-wide startup support network. Register to attend the virtual event here.