The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology is a Pan-African training program, seed fund and incubator in Accra, Ghana. The three-phase school and incubator program were founded in 2008 by Jørn Lyseggen to provide training, investment, and mentoring for aspiring technology entrepreneurs with the goal of creating globally successful companies that create wealth and jobs locally in Africa. Since launching in 2008, MEST backed startups have been acquired by investors, or recognized internationally by organisations such as Techstars, 500 Startups, Y Combinator and at events like the LAUNCH Conference in San Francisco.
History
MEST was announced in 2007, when Meltwater announced plans to establish an entrepreneurial training program in Africa. The school opened in February 2008 with the first class of Entrepreneurs in Training. In February 2010, the first class of EITs graduated and the MEST Incubator was launched with seed funding for incubator companies started by the first group of EITs. In January 2015, MEST partnered with Vodafone Ghana to sponsor a 48-hour hackathon to help develop access to information, simplify transactions and shorten business processes. In February 2015, the school was recognized as one of the top 10 most innovative companies of Africa by Fast Company. MEST announced a partnership with Samsung in April 2015. As part of the agreement, Samsung provided subsidized devices and internship positions, as well as marketing services and mobile application distribution, in exchange for the opportunity to invest in MEST companies through its Samsung Enterprise Business Partners. MEST hosted the first Africa Technology Summit in November 2015 in Accra, Ghana, the event featured panels and keynote presentations from a variety of global and African businesses. In 2016, MEST began recruiting EITs from the French-speaking Ivory Coast and opened an additional business incubator in Lagos while planning to open an additional location in Cape Town. That same year, MEST entered a partnership with Kosmos Energy to form the Kosmos Innovation Centre to focus on creating agriculture solutions. In December 2016, MEST hosted the second Africa Tech Summit in Lagos, Nigeria, including speakers from Google, Uber, Interswitch, Vodacom and Samsung. In September 2017, MEST named Aaron Fu as its Managing Director. The organization also announced that it would expand its presence across the continent with several new incubator spaces in additional African markets.
Program
MEST sponsors African entrepreneurs in completing a 12-month program focused on software development, business fundamentals and entrepreneurship. Top graduates from schools in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa Entrepreneurs-In-Training are selected each year to receive comprehensive training in computer programming, product management, finance, marketing, sales, business leadership, and other skills required to build a successful technology business. Upon completion of the training program, the best business ideas are provided seed funding and incubated as startup companies.
