She leverages her expertise and experience in finance to contribute to economic and sustainable development initiatives on the African continent. Through Melanin Kapital, she provides financial support for Africa's green revolution.

Mélanie Keïta (photo) is a Franco-Congolese finance and investment expert. In 2020, she co-founded Melanin Kapital, a carbon financing platform that aims to become the leading fintech platform financing green transition in Africa. 

Her Kenya-based financing platform funds the acquisition of clean energy equipment that SMEs need to grow and simultaneously reduce their carbon footprint. The equipment includes electric vehicles, renewable energy equipment, waste management facilities, and green kitchen equipment.

The platform empowers entrepreneurs by helping them access the capital they need to turn their idea into a business. It also trains and coaches them, focusing particularly on women and local entrepreneurs and promotes the use of digital tools.

Mélanie Keïta, who heads that platform as its CEO, is also the Head of Operations at Tuungane Foundation, the non-profit arm of Melanin Kapital that prepares SMEs to access credit and funding from its parent company and other lending partners.  She is also a guest lecturer at ESCP Business School, where she graduated with a master's degree in development economics and international development in 2018.

The entrepreneur also holds a master's degree in finance and financial management services, from the ESSCA business school (2016)  and an International Certificate in Corporate Finance from HEC Paris (2016).  

Her professional career began, in 2015, as an intern in the SME finance department of France's Générale Electrique et Mesures Optiques (GEMO). Since then, she has worked for several finance and investment institutions such as Investisseurs et Partenaires (I & P), 2° Investing Initiative, and Finance in Motion.

A member of the NextGen committee of the 100 Women in Finance network of finance professionals, Mélanie Keïta was listed in Forbes magazine's 2021 Top 30 under 30. In 2022, she received the Top Africa award issued by GITEX, among others.

Melchior Koba

He is a successful entrepreneur and talented computer scientist with a proven track record in several tech companies. With Eden Life, he helps middle-class Africans find competent people to manage household chores.

Nadayar Enegesi (photo) is a Nigerian computer scientist who graduated from the University of Waterloo, Canada, with a Bachelor's degree in 2013. He is the CEO of Eden Life, a start-up he founded in 2019 with Prosper Otemuyiwa.

His startup was born out of both his and his co-founder’s desire to improve the quality of life of middle-class individuals. In Nigeria and Kenya, the startup connects people who provide services such as laundry, cleaning, catering, and equipment maintenance with those in need.

“Eden is the single platform for all domestic services. It's a superior answer to the question of an inferior lifestyle. If you’ve ever wanted to be done with house chores or wanted better services for things like your laundry, meals, house cleaning, maintenance, etc, then you have silently prayed for Eden,” Nadayar Enegesi writes on his Linkedin profile.

The same Linkedin profile informs that prior to founding Eden Life, in 2014, Nadayar Enegesi co-founded Andela, an engineering platform that helps companies build remote teams quickly and affordably. He was also the director of Launchpad, Andela's in-house incubator from January 2018 to April 2019. Still, at Andela, Nadayar Enegesi was the Director of Learning and Development as well as the Director of Engineering and Training.

In 2013, the tech entrepreneur co-founded Fora, a marketplace for North American online courses targeted mainly at African students and emerging professionals. Nadayar Enegesi was the company's CTO until June 2014.

The computer scientist has worked as an IT developer for several technology companies such as Phoenix Interactive, BBS Securities Inc, and MKS. He was OpenText's quality assurance automation specialist in 2011. Between 2015 and 2016, he was an Udacity code reviewer.

Melchior Koba

The Baobab Network is one of Africa's leading accelerators. It supports tech start-ups by providing mentoring, acceleration, networking, and funding to help them grow and have a positive impact on their communities.

The Baobab Network is an accelerator that supports the best tech start-ups in Africa, providing entrepreneurs with funding, support and a global platform to grow their businesses.

Founded in Kenya, in 2015, by British Toom Fairburn and Toby Hanington, the accelerator invests up to $50,000 in early-stage tech companies. It has developed a unique, intensive program to ensure the success of each start-up that goes through its training. Each of the startups has access to a network of experts, mentors, corporate partners, and investors to grow their businesses.

Its acceleration program begins with two weeks of intensive consulting to address the most pressing challenges faced by founders, followed by 12 weeks of practical support for founders, during which an acceleration plan is created for each startup.  

The acceleration program takes place remotely so that founders are not kept away from their companies for too long. Registrations for the next cohort of the program are already open. 

The Baobab Network’s partners offer their expertise and services, run pilot projects, and explore early business partnerships. They also provide grants as well as equity and debt funding to the startups selected by the accelerator. 

Over the past five years, The Baobab Network has worked more than 10,000 hours alongside budding entrepreneurs in Africa. Its portfolio of supported start-ups includes advertising agency Adafri, on-demand warehousing company Afrigility, and Alerzo, a platform that empowers retailers.  

Melchior Koba

She studied civil engineering and urban planning. After working with various logistics companies, she founded her own company, Jumba, to solve construction challenges in Africa. 

Kagure Wamunyu (photo) is the co-founder and CEO of construction tech startup Jumba. The Kenyan-born entrepreneur studied engineering at North Carolina State University, graduating with a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering. She also holds a bachelor's in mathematics from Meredith College (2013) and a doctorate in sustainable urban development from Oxford University (2022)

In 2022, she co-founded (with Miano Njoka)  the construction tech company Jumba to ease the supply of building materials. The startup developed a business-to-business platform that seamlessly integrates the building materials supply chain, offering not only a marketplace for building materials manufacturers and suppliers but also a single, reliable source of materials for hardware stores and construction companies. It ensures item delivery and transparency, enabling customers to track their deliveries in real time.  The goods marketed on the platform are affordable, as Jumba makes sure that buyers pay no extra charges. 

In February 2023, the start-up raised $4.5 million to further expand in Kenya. "Kenya will remain our core market, the opportunity is massive here. We plan to scale in this market to acquire more customers before we explore the next market," said Kagure Wamunyu at the time.

The latter, apart from leading Jumba, is also the co-owner of Lava Latte, a women-run café that offers a conducive space for work meetings and relaxation. Before founding her company in 2022, she was the Global Chief Operating Officer of Kobo 360, a pan-African technology logistics company.

In 2015, she joined Uber Kenya where she worked, for two years successively as Operations Manager and Country Manager. In 2017, she was hired by Bridge International Academies as Senior Strategy Director in East Africa. 

In 2018, she made it to the Business Daily Africa’s list of the top 40 Under 40 women. 

Melchior Koba