MEST Africa

MEST Africa is an Accra-based pan-African technology entrepreneur training programme, seed fund, and incubator founded in 2008 by Meltwater, the media intelligence software company, with a mission to train, invest in, and launch the next generation of African technology entrepreneurs. The programme recruits top STEM graduates from across Africa, provides them with a two-year intensive training in software engineering, entrepreneurship, marketing, and finance, and then seeds the most promising teams with initial capital of $50,000 to $150,000 to build their companies within the MEST incubator. MEST operates training and incubator campuses in Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town, and other African cities. Portfolio companies that have emerged include Leti Arts, the African comic and gaming company; Soothe, a health technology platform; Releaf, the African agro-processing infrastructure company; Meqasa, a Ghanaian property listings platform; and Asoriba, church management software. The original directory lists the portfolio as various EIT portfolio companies. Beyond programme graduates, MEST Africa has helped create more than 60 companies across the continent.