MEST Africa

MEST Africa is a Pan-African training program, seed fund, and incubator founded in 2008 by the Meltwater Foundation. Headquartered in Accra, Ghana, it equips promising tech entrepreneurs with skills to build and scale software companies through intensive training, mentorship, and early-stage investment. The program selects talent from across Africa for a fully sponsored experience focused on software development, business fundamentals, and entrepreneurship. MEST Africa invests primarily at the seed stage, with activity from September 2018 to September 2020 totaling $500K across six rounds. It focuses on Ghana (five investments) and Kenya (one), targeting sectors including fintech (two), e-commerce and retail, AI and analytics, productivity and workspace, HR and talent, and logistics and supply chain. Portfolio companies include Tendo (e-commerce, Ghana), Oze (fintech, Ghana), WayaWaya (fintech, Kenya), Judy (AI and productivity, Ghana), Codeln (HR and talent, Ghana), and Jumeni (logistics, Ghana).