Emerging green entrepreneurs participating in an intensive incubation program to address pressing environmental challenges across East Africa under Jacob's ladder held a demo day today.
Finalist teams were drawn from various counties across Kenya which included Baringo, Busia, Homa Bay, Kajiado, Kiambu, Kisii, Kisumu, Lamu, Machakos, Makueni, Meru, Mombasa, Nakuru, Nyeri, Tranza Nzoia, Turkana, Uasin Gishu and
Nairobi to present their innovative and scalable ideas aimed at building sustainable and resilient food systems powered by renewable energy.
The Demo Day marked the culmination of the Powering Food Systems Innovation Challenge designed to inspire and engage young aspiring entrepreneurs with Participants exploring how renewable energy can transform food systems from production to consumption.
Solutions ranged from energy-efficient farming
techniques and renewable-powered food processing to sustainable transport and waste reduction through smart energy systems.
The event also featured an expert judging panel comprising industry leaders, including Luiza Munyua, Snr. Scientific Officer, African Union; Omondi Kasidhi, Senior Manager, Digital Growth & Commercialization - Africa Yara International;
Mutembei Kariuki, Co-Founder & CEO, Fastagger; Ann Ichungwa, Founder, GAK Advisory; Bilha Ndirangu, CEO, Great Carbon Valley and Sharon Olende, Trade & Working Capital Finance, Churpy Inc., who evaluated the finalists’ solutions
and selected the winners. The Demo Day concluded with an award ceremony celebrating the ingenuity and efforts of
the participants with part of the main considerations for selection being the solution’s impact on women and youth.
Participants had the chance to win monetary prizes in the form of pre-seed capital, ranging from Ksh 10,000 to Ksh 100,000. In third place was Bettinah Maruti from iLoop KE and Logistics, an innovative solution addressing food spoilage and storage issues for vendors in low-income areas. Second place went to Alfred Mutethia, Steven Mwaura, and Victor Gituma from Solar Nest, a poultry farming solution leveraging advanced solar tracking technology, ESP32 microcontrollers, and cameras. The grand prize of Ksh 200,000 was awarded to Urbanus Lubano from Empire Innovations, a company creating renewable energy-powered machinery for sustainable agriculture.
