Our Progress
Harambeans are emboldening a generation of African innovators and developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem to transform ideas into scalable solutions across Africa. What began as the “Dream on a Piece of Paper” of a coterie of young Africans gathered on the foothills of Mount Washington, united by the principles of the Harambe Declaration in 2008, has blossomed over the past sixteen years into a pan-African Alliance that is 355 strong. Harambeans are diverse, competitive and impactful in ways that inspire others and produce meaningful growth. As determined visionaries, Harambeans are excelling in their various fields, scaling ventures that are not only building Africa’s future, but the world’s. With every round of successful investment funding, Harambeans channel money into their economies and continue to grow their ventures to have an even greater impact over time. When you invest in Harambeans, you invest in Africa’s future.
DIVERSE
Harambeans share a common set of values that spans cultures and countries. Our culture is what binds our entrepreneurs, investors, and partners together. The proof is in our numbers — 355 Harambeans representing 36 African countries, dozens of languages spoken, and an almost even split between male and female members. Stacey Brewer H’21 wanted to address South Africa’s national education crisis. SPARK Schools represents an innovative approach to providing affordable, high-quality education to underserved communities. Their focus is on access to high-quality education to ensure that their scholars can compete at an international level. The SPARK Schools network currently serves more than 14 000 scholars at 19 primary schools and 1 high school across Gauteng and the Western Cape. Damilola Olokesusi H’18 wanted to tackle the inefficient transport system in Lagos, Nigeria, one of Africa’s most populous cities, by offering an affordable and safe way for professionals in the metropole to commute. Shuttlers is the first scheduled ride-sharing platform that offers an economical way for professionals and organizations in the Lagos metropolis to get to work. The company sells over 9,000 tickets daily to individual and corporate passengers and has provided 3 million B2B trips and over 2 million B2C trips, serving more than 80,000 commuters. The company plans to go live in five other cities across Nigeria by 2024. Initiatives like these are scaling impact, expanding diversity, and building Africa’s future in a way that is inclusive and sustainable for all.
COMPETITIVE
Harambeans are culled from a competitive pool of applicants from over 335 leading universities around the world. The members of our Alliance are graduates from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Cape Town, Yale and others that are renowned for producing brilliant leaders and inspiring entrepreneurs. The excellence of Harambeans has been recognized through hundreds of awards, including the prestigious World Economic Forum, YCombinator and Rhodes Trust to name a few. Frank Williams H’23 graduated top of his class at the University of York where he completed an Economics and Finance BSc followed by an MBA from Harvard Business School. He was recognised as a McKinsey Emerging Scholar in 2016. He is the CEO and co-founder of TopSet, a company with a mission to revolutionize education in Africa by empowering learners to solve the continent’s challenges. They do this by fostering creativity and critical thinking through progressive teaching methods and leveraging technology. They also aim to foster cultural identity and engagement among the African diaspora through language education. Tesh Mbaabu H’20 is a Computer Science graduate from the University of Nairobi and the co-founder of MarketForce, a B2B commerce platform that empowers over 200,000 neighborhood merchants across five African markets to source, order and pay for inventory, access financing and earn more by reselling financial services in their communities. He is a Forbes Africa 30 under 30, a Choiseul 100 Africa Laureate, Business Daily Top 40 under 40 men in Kenya, CIO Africa’s Top 45 Most Influential Men in Digital Transformation, Top 10 Africa Business Heroes, and a Schmidt Futures, Westerwelle, Alibaba and UN Fellow.
IMPACTFUL
Recognized by the African Union, the Economist and the Vatican, Harambeans epitomize the can-do spirit of the new generation of African leaders. Over the last decade, Harambeans have spawned a series of tech-enabled ventures such as Andela, Flutterwave and Yoco, which have collectively raised over $2BN from Google for Startups, Y Combinator, CRE and 500 startups creating more than 4 000 jobs. Katlego Maphai H’23 is the co-founder and CEO of Yoco, a venture that empowers the growth of entrepreneurs in Africa through building tools and services that help small businesses to get paid, run their business better and thrive. Since launching in 2015, the venture has acquired over 150 000 merchants/small businesses, processing $1 billion per year through the platform and today employs 230 people. The company’s growth has been driven almost exclusively by small, independent businesses that were previously cash-only due to the complexity and high costs of existing alternatives. Yoco’s mission is to support the transition of consumer behavior away from cash by continuing to deepen its market presence in South Africa and expanding into Africa and the Middle East region. Ikenna Nzewi H’17 and Uzoma Ayogu H’20 are the co-founders of Releaf, a Nigerian agritech start-up building proprietary hardware and software solutions to make farmers and food factories more efficient and profitable. Their focus has been on the oil palm sector in Nigeria where more than 4 million smallholder farmers drive 80% of the production in a market worth $3 billion. Kraken is a proprietary patent-pending machine that has already processed 500 tonnes of palm nuts. Its software connects to over 2,000 smallholder farmers who have supplied over 10 million kilograms of quality palm kernel nuts to food factories. The founders believe their smart factories serve as economic pillars in rural communities enabling them to supply communities with other services like access to working capital, payment for education and access to insurance services. These results make it clear that Harambeans go above and beyond with their entrepreneurial impact.
