6. Mercy Kitomari, Nelwa’s Gelato
Tanzanian Mercy Kitomari is founder and CEO of Nelwa’s Gelato, an ice cream business operating in the financial hub of Dar es Salaam.
Her interest in ice cream began while she was studying for an MBA in the UK. She worked part time as a tour guide, and after every sightseeing trip she would take visitors to ice cream parlours at Leicester Square in the heart of London.
Upon completing her studies, Kitomari took up a job at a bank in Tanzania. In 2012 she started making ice cream from her mother’s kitchen and eventually quit her job to run her business full time.
7. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Flutterwave
Serial entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is one of the minds behind Andela, a company training African developers and hiring them out to global tech companies, and, most recently, Flutterwave, which provides banks, enterprises and entrepreneurs with the underlying technology platform to make and accept payments anywhere in Africa.
In 2009, after his first year of studying in Canada – with the hopes to become a politician – Aboyeji went to work at the UN, which he quickly realised wasn’t for him.
Upon returning to his studies, he founded his first company Bookneto, which was later acquired by the Canadian Innovation Centre. Aboyeji then moved back to Nigeria, his birthplace, and launched his second venture, Flora. After that, he co-founded Andela, which received US$24m investment from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
8. Mbwana Alliy, Savannah Fund
Originally from Tanzania, Mbwana Alliy, has lived and worked in the US, Europe and Africa. After attending university in Bristol, and acquiring an MBA from Stanford, Alliy worked as an aerospace systems engineer and software developer in the UK, as well as in two Silicon Valley start-ups, among various other things.
One of his most notable endeavours is Savannah Fund, a seed capital fund, which he co-founded in 2012. As of 2017, he has overseen 26 investments in six African countries – Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ghana.
9. Matthew “Tayo” Rugamba, House of Tayo
When Matthew “Tayo” Rugamba ventured into the fashion business in 2011, he began by selling his bow ties out of a backpack. At the time he was still living and studying in the US, but whenever he came back home to Rwanda for the holidays, he would work on making bow ties, and peddling them informally.
Rugamba is now the founder and creative director of House of Tayo, a Kigali-based fashion label known mostly for its attention-getting bow ties, neck ties, pocket scarves and snoods which are made from African “kitenge” fabrics.
While his designs have found bigger audiences abroad, Rugamba continues to produce in Rwanda with the help of local artisans and tailors to “keep the brand authentic” while creating employment opportunities.
10. Chris Folayan, Mall for Africa
When he was younger, Nigerian Chris Folayan, founder and CEO of e-commerce platform Mall for Africa, moved to the US to study. But whenever he came back home to visit, his family and friends would give him long lists of items to bring from America.
As the lists grew, Folayan noticed a strong demand for items not found easily in Africa, and so built an e-commerce platform that would tap into this market. Today the award-winning company enables Africans and people in emerging markets to purchase products from over 200 US and UK online retailers.