Meet the MEST Africa Challenge Grand Finale Judges

On August 12th, 2020, the MEST Africa Challenge will hold its grand finale after two months of exciting country-level competitions in all nine competing countries. MEST is thrilled to announce that the nine country winners pitching in the 2020 finale are Debo Engineering (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 Popup Shop Shop (South Africa).

They will be competing for $50,000 in equity investment, prizes from our partners, and a spot in one of MEST’s incubators with access to our Africa-wide startup support network.

Judging the finale is MEST’s very own founder, as well as executives from Microsoft and two leading venture capitalist firms. Together, they will select the winning pitch and crown ‘Africa’s best tech startup’ LIVE at the Finale event online.

Keep reading to get to know our judges a little better, and join us on August 12th to hear more from them!

Jorn Lyseggen

Founder & CEO, MEST

Jorn is the Founder & CEO of Meltwater and MEST Africa. He is a Norwegian entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded Meltwater in Oslo, Norway in 2001 with an investment of just $15,000.

Built on the notion of Outside insight, Meltwater is now a global leader in B2B online media intelligence, with over 60 offices across six continents, serving more than 30,000 clients.

He founded the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in 2008, and launched SHACK15, a data science hub and members club in London and San Francisco, in 2016.

Andreata Muforo

Partner, TLcom Capital

Andreata leads VC investments in early to growth stage tech-enabled businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa from origination, investment, management through to exit. Andreata is on the Boards of Okra and Ajua, and a Board observer at Twiga Foods. She is also engaged in local partnerships with entrepreneurs, accelerators and incubators, and the Endeavor network for mentoring and deal flow generation.

Andreata has extensive transaction structuring and corporate finance experience from her experience at Horizon Africa Capital and at the African Development Bank. She has worked on mergers and acquisitions and capital raising mandates for projects and funds across Africa and has a strong network among entrepreneurs and financiers in Africa.

Andreata holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Economics from Grinnell College in Iowa, USA.

Chris Lwanga

Senior Director Software Partnership, Microsoft

Chris Lwanga is currently working on helping land the Africa strategy for his division at Microsoft; as well as leading a team that engages with partners from a community perspective.

In addition, he leads a team focused on helping his engineering colleagues build next-generation innovation in conjunction with customers and partners. Before this, he headed up a team that worked with startups and ISV partners in the Cloud and Enterprise Division — ISVs that innovated on Windows Server, System Center and Azure.

Prior to that, he was responsible for the relationship between Microsoft and key partners for Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise division (IBM, Cisco, Citrix, and Ncomputing). In this capacity, he focused on delivering strategic technology collaboration between these partners and Microsoft.

Prior to joining the Cloud and Enterprise Division, he was a Director in Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group (UPG), where he was tasked with delivering mobile solutions to partners in emerging markets; in this capacity, he also served on the board of Oxigen Services in India and handled another major partnership in sub-Saharan Africa with the Blue-Label investment group. Before joining UPG he was focused on delivering Windows Mobile solutions to 125 Mobile Operators around the world for Microsoft’s Windows Phone Business.

Mr. Lwanga has over 26 years of experience primarily in the Startup, Government, Communications and Media & Entertainment areas. He started out his career working for the African Development Bank and has been at Microsoft for the last 18 years. He holds an MBA in International Management from the University of Dallas, a BS in Computer Engineering and a BS in Business Administration from LeTourneau University. He is fluent in French and English.

Teresa Mbagaya

Founding Principal, Imaginable Futures

A Founding Principal at Imaginable Futures, Teresa Mbagaya is responsible for the strategic leadership, management, and execution of IF’s investment strategy in education in Africa.

Previously as the Education Lead for Microsoft in East and Southern Africa, she led regional teams in the deployment and implementation of learning solutions and innovations across 10 countries. As the Head of Econet Education, Teresa drove the development of Zimbabwe’s first digital education platform.

Her background builds upon a proven career in the private and public sector impacting millions through nation-wide initiatives centered on digital education transformation and youth skills development. She has been listed as “30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa” by Forbes, a 2020 Archbishop Tutu Fellow, a 2019 Obama Foundation Leader, a nominee for the Future Awards Africa “Young Person of the Year”, Kenya’s Top 40 Under 40 Women, and 2019’s Choiseul 200 as among Africa’s economic leaders of tomorrow.

Teresa served on the 2018 advisory board of Village Capital Communities Africa, as an advisory member on the Global Education Platform, under the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, and a member of Technical Reference Group of the 2017 High-Level Dialogue on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance in Africa. Teresa graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University.

Join MEST, lead partner — Microsoft, and ecosystem partners — VC4A, AfriLabs, YUX, Briter Bridges, Blue Moon, Founders Factory Africa, Silicon Cape, Gebeya, Nailab, Royal Work Hub, Growth Africa, Nairobi Garage, Swahili Box, 250 Startups, Impact Hub Kigali, KLab, Ghana Tech Lab, Hacklab Foundation, Move Me Back, SBIncubator, Seedstars, GrowthLab, Levers in Heels, Robotech Labs, Africarena, Impact Hub Lagos, Take My Word and She Leads Africa in the exciting finale.

Date: August 12th, 2020.

Time: 3:00pm GMT

Register: bit.ly/MESTAfricaChallengeFinale

This year, the MEST Africa Challenge has also introduced the community choice vote. Viewers will have the opportunity to reward their favorite startups with access to the MEST Community and its perks, live during the Finale.

You don’t want to miss a minute. See you there!