Anthony Ndolo, Founder & CEO Smatbeba

Anthony Ndolo is a self-motivated entrepreneurship enthusiast who is passionate about influencing people in the world especially the youth to take up active roles in whatever capacities to be part of the global solutions to global problems. an MIT-trained Economist, Business Consultant, Mentor and Operational Excellence enthusiast, with cross-cultural academic and professional experiences from Ghana, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Anthony was raised in Gusii highlands, 195 miles from the Capital Nairobi alongside his 2 siblings whom he was supporting by the age of 19 following the death of his parents. He joined Maasai Mara University to study Statistics.

Anthony tried a couple of businesses in the course of his undergraduate studies leading to owning a small scale quarry business in 2015. This eventually led to a construction supplies transport business in 2017 that ran on an offline marketplace model in the small dusty town of Narok where his university was located. One day a client told him that he needs to open an office to serve multiple clients and consider expanding into other sectors apart from the transportation of construction supplies.

The thought of creating an online cargo transportation marketplace came to Anthony in November 2017 and he teamed up with his high school classmate Timon to launch Smatbeba in 2018.

What started as a dream to offer safe, affordable, and reliable cargo transportation for both businesses and individuals in a small dusty town in Kenya has since moved to serve customers in the East African market. It has also created employment and income for thousands of truck drivers and over 6,000,000 pounds of goods in weight have been delivered to areas where they are highly needed across different value chains.

Anthony won the 2020 Africa Mobility Initiative Program Pitching competition on behalf of Smatbeba where he is the current CEO.

Jessica Poku, Global Operations Lead Uber

Jessica Poku is currently the Global Operations Lead at Uber, she is passionate about using tech to impact the social and economic development of the African continent, and before moving into her current role, was the Country Manager for Uber Ghana for three years. Prior to joining Uber, she worked at Google on Project Link (now CSquared), set up to build and lease metro fiber in Africa, as the Commercial Operations Manager for Ghana and Liberia. She is also a global leader in diversity and inclusion where she partners with the Executive Leadership at Uber to create inclusion for underrepresented minorities as a global co-chair for the Black at Uber employee resource group.She has been named one of the 60 most influential Ghanaians (2020), top 50 young CEOs (2021) as well as one of 12 outstanding young female business leaders on the continent

Sherif Nessim, Venture Capitalist & Managing Director Jedar Capital

Sherif Nessim is the Founder & Managing Partner of Jedar Capital. He is focused on investing in emerging and frontier markets, mainly in MEAP region; Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, where he spent the past 24 years working with telecom and technology sector. Prior to moving to USA, Sherif was based in Egypt serving as Operations/Commercial Director at ArpuPlus, the largest mobile value-added service provider in the region. He was involved in several impact projects using mobile technologies in payments, data access and ensuring inclusion of unbanked and unserved populations in emerging markets. Sherif holds an undergraduate degree in Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering from Cairo University and post graduate diplomas in Finance and Investment Portfolio Management.

Tshepo Kgobe, COO at Gautrain Management Agency

Tshepo Kgobe is the COO of The Gautrain Management Agency (GMA), He started his career as civil engineer in KZN and specialised in rail programme and project management. At the start of his career, he worked in the Durban region as a Perway & Facilities operations line manager. Kgobe was previously in senior engineering management in Metrorail head office in Perway & Structures. He has 12 years’ experience as a director on the board of various companies, where he was responsible for business development, Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE), Transformation, Corporate Social Investment and Supplier Development. Tshepo has practiced and lived in South Africa; operating in the Rail industry with various local and international companies including the UK, with Corus Rail Consultancy.

Paula Jares Canovas, Chief of Staff at Jetstream Africa

Paula Jares Canovas is the  is the Chief of Staff at Jetstream Africa, a technology-enabled logistics company aiming at simplifying cross-border logistics in Africa.

Paula brings 17 years of experience in areas of business administration, financial management, and financial services across Latin America, Europe, and Asia, collaborating with corporations such as HSBC Bank, Santander Bank, and Telefonica. For the past 6 years, Paula has been focused on supporting startups and scale-up firms in Africa in the financial services, impact investing, and technology industries. Paula is an Industrial Engineer and holds a Master's of Business Administration with a concentration in International Business.

Paula was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and currently resides in Spain. She speaks Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Christopher Maara, Founder & CEO Kiri EV

Christopher Maara is an entrepreneur and renewable energy promoter. He is the founder and CEO of Kiri EV, an electric mobility company based in Nairobi, Kenya. Christopher’s mission is to provide affordable clean energy for the mobility sector to improve lives and accelerate sustainable development while increasing local production. Electric vehicles such as electric motorcycles for more densely populated cities will help more people achieve environmentally-friendly transportation. Christopher is very passionate about playing an active role in Africa’s transition to clean energy with particular interest in e-mobility and Solar PV. Christopher sees a lot of positive change that can come about in the world through clean energy, and is working towards making that change a reality.