Startup Savanna rising stars in the IGNITE International acceleration programme

Lemuel Kinyanzwii is the Founder & CEO of Smart Brains Africa, an online Coding School, specifically for kids and teens in Africa. 

He has 11 years of consistent experience, founding and running a business in the education space. 

Previously, Lemuel founded: Bendhino Computer College in 2012, exited in 2013, and Dolphins Music Ltd in 2013-2018.

Smart Brains Africa was founded in 2018, and now has over 100 students learning to code online from home. 

He trained as a music tutor under The Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music, Britain. (ABRSM)

Waringa Wagema is the founder of Center for Mental health and wellness Kenya. She has a Bachelor’s degree in both law and public health and has nine years of work experience with different companies, NGO’s and vulnerable populations. In addition to this work she is the Founder, Lead Trainer and CEO of the Centre for Mental Health and Wellness Kenya which was founded in 2018 in Kiambu. A creator of a Wellness Curriculum for training comprehensive mental and emotional health education to families, friends, co-workers and caregivers.

Mental health education is a vital tool for providing support, building capacity and bridging the knowledge gap. She believes that restoration, rehabilitation and reintegration reside in the community. Her unique combination of skills and expertise in law, public health, teaching, training, personal life experience and management give her a valuable edge in developing mental health curriculums and programmes.

When she is not working or studying she loves to engage in all things art, design and creativity, writing, music, listening to podcasts, yoga, reading non-fiction, telling a good story with friends and having a hearty laugh.

Hawa Waore is the founder and creative director at Tasty Brunch, a local artisan bakery in Kenya, founded in Uasin Ngishu county. She has been a home baker and it’s only after her undergraduate studies that she started exploring her passion for creative confections. With a background in Agricultural Economics, International Development and Baking, Hawa’s true passion is bringing people from all walks of life together to foster inclusive cultures. She is an active volunteer and has participated in many community development projects, working with not only great minds from Africa but also from Asia and Europe. She believes that we meet our greatness when we open our minds to explore and embrace different cultures. 

In addition to exploring creative confections and volunteerism, Hawa enjoys a good book.

James Kiruri, is the founder of Teleeza Africa, a mobile content aggregation and advertising platform. James is a Finance and ICT professional, a passionate entrepreneur who enjoys creating and building unique businesses. The onset of Covid19 drove Teleeza to be a reliable and trustworthy content provider.
 
Together with a team of eight other multi-skilled Kenyans and with the right skill mix in sales, commercial, marketing, design, content, tech etc Teleeza is well placed to tackle the problem and opportunity provided by the media fragmentation by building a platform that is fun, easy and convenient for our ecosystem of users, publishers, advertisers and Teleeza World marketplace partners utilising the new first screen, the smartphone.
 
Teleeza won the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in the Digital Change-Maker Innovation Challenge in a pandemic and post-pandemic world.
 
In February 2018 Teleeza launched in Kenya and is growing fast and now we are raising Seed funding to accelerate in Kenya and commence tackling the Africa market.

Gilbert Were is the founder of Gilitics Media, a digital media company focusing on providing authentic inspirational content targeted at enlightening the society on issues related to their everyday living and giving hope to the community by telling their stories. interest in media began in 2015 when a friend from Amsterdam recruited him to collect human interest stories as a video journalist for their company, Zoomin.tv. From the experience and training he received, he realised he could utilize that niche and start his own company.

“During the 2017 general elections, upon finishing my work with Zoomin.tv, I associated myself with a certain candidate and began running and managing his social media and press duties. Together with some friends of mine, we set the groundwork for the company and began covering local events and telling stories within the community. Gradually we managed to get incorporated as a company and registered by the Media Council of Kenya in May and June 2020 respectively, and four years later we are still going on strong”.

He is also an IT expert, Data Analyst, in Data Security and Cloud Computing.

Ochieng Violet is the founder and CEO of Veeklture Enterprise, an enterprise that produces quality and affordable washable diapers for parents in informal settlements. Prior to Veeklture Enterprise, Violet was the Program Manager at KCEO, an organization that empowered women and girls on social entrepreneurial skills.

Before Joining KCEO, Violet was a volunteer at Friends of Love Kibera (FOLKS), teaching and mentoring children from Kibera as well as training their parents and guardians on technical business skills. While at FOLKS, Violet also worked as a Social Worker.

Violet holds a BA in Sociology and has done several leadership and entrepreneurship training. Violet is also an Alumni of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)