A new cohort of African entrepreneurs is stepping onto the global investment stage, as Imperial College London prepares to host a high-stakes investor pitch event spotlighting founders reshaping food systems and climate innovation across emerging markets.
Convened under the Imperial Global Ghana initiative, the programme brings together startups from Africa and South Asia tackling structural inefficiencies in agriculture, energy and supply chains. These sectors widely seen as critical to the future of both economic resilience and climate adaptation.
“Across South Asia and Africa, founders are redesigning food systems that reduce waste, improve yields, increase farmer incomes and create resilient supply chains,” Imperial Global Ghana said, framing the cohort as a new generation of commercially driven, impact-oriented builders.
African founders anchor food systems transformation
At the core of the showcase is a group of AgriTech entrepreneurs targeting one of Africa’s most persistent economic bottlenecks, which is agricultural inefficiency. Despite employing more than 50 per cent of the continent’s workforce, Africa’s agricultural productivity remains among the lowest globally, with post-harvest losses estimated at up to $4 billion annually.
The selected founders reflect a growing shift toward data-driven and circular agriculture models:
- Diana Orembe (Tanzania), NovFeed — developing solutions that convert agricultural waste into high-value animal feed, addressing both waste management and input cost pressures.
- Roy Njoka (Kenya), Terralima — focused on soil health and regenerative agriculture to improve yields sustainably.
- Oleka Kelechi (Nigeria), Slice Africa — working on food supply chain efficiencies to reduce loss and improve distribution.
They are joined by Miller Alexander Rajendran (Sri Lanka), SenzAgro and Aiman Aziz (Pakistan), SAWIE Ecosystems, highlighting cross-regional collaboration in tackling shared agricultural constraints.
Investors will hear directly from the founders on April 28 in London, in what is expected to be a tightly watched forum for capital allocation into climate-smart agriculture, a sector increasingly attracting blended finance and venture capital as food security pressures intensify globally.
CleanTech founders turn climate risk into revenue
Running parallel to the AgriTech showcase is a second cohort of Commonwealth Startup Fellows (CSF), many of them African entrepreneurs building revenue-generating climate solutions across waste, energy and logistics.
“Climate innovation is no longer optional, it’s investable, scalable, and founder-led,” the organisers stated, underscoring a broader shift in investor sentiment as climate tech in emerging markets moves from grant dependency to venture-backed scalability.
Among the African founders:
- Munyasa Hellen (Uganda), Helton Traders Limited — building waste-to-value systems.
- Fareeda Bagya Mustapha (Ghana), PureLube — developing sustainable industrial lubrication solutions.
- Daniel Enebeli (Uganda), Protein Kapital Ltd. — advancing alternative protein and circular bio-economy models.
- Anthony Owusu-Ansah (Ghana), ShaQ Express — innovating in logistics and infrastructure efficiency within supply chains.
They are joined by Volentina Nicholson (Jamaica), Carbon Neutral and Gopal Kumar Mohoto (Bangladesh), Cassetex, reinforcing the programme’s transcontinental scope.
“These csf founders are building climate solutions that generate revenue, reduce waste and scale across emerging markets,” the statement added.
Imperial platform signals growing investor appetite
The London pitch event reflects a broader recalibration in global capital flows toward frontier markets. Climate finance directed to Africa, while still under 5 per cent of global flows, is increasingly targeting scalable, private-sector-led ventures capable of delivering both returns and measurable impact.
For African founders, platforms linked to institutions such as Imperial College London offer more than visibility, they provide validation, investor access and pathways into global capital markets that remain difficult to penetrate from within the continent.
The programme’s focus on “climate-resilient businesses built for scale” aligns with a growing consensus among development finance institutions and venture investors that Africa’s next wave of growth will be driven by entrepreneurs solving real-economy constraints food security, energy access and logistics inefficiencies rather than purely digital or consumer-led models.
As the April 28 pitch approaches, the significance extends beyond a single event. It signals the maturation of African entrepreneurship into a globally competitive asset class rooted in necessity, but increasingly defined by innovation, scalability and commercial viability.
