# MEST AFRICA

> MEST AFRICA is a VC fund in Accra backing E-Commerce and FinTech. See 14 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Accra, Ghana
- Total investments: 14
- Last investment: Feb 2025
- Lead investor: 50%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/mestafrica/
- Website: https://meltwater.org/

MEST AFRICA is a VC fund in Accra focused on E-Commerce and FinTech. MEST is a startup incubator and VC firm backed by The Meltwater Foundation.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for MEST AFRICA. Shizune tracks 2 team members at MEST AFRICA. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/mest-africa?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| E-Commerce | 4 | 29% |
| FinTech | 3 | 21% |
| Retail | 2 | 14% |
| Software | 2 | 14% |
| Financial Services | 2 | 14% |

29 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pre-Seed | 7 | 50% |
| Seed | 4 | 29% |
| Grant | 2 | 14% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 7% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ghana | 7 | 50% |
| Kenya | 2 | 14% |
| Belgium | 1 | 7% |
| Nigeria | 1 | 7% |
| South Africa | 1 | 7% |

6 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ashwin Ravichandran | Managing Director | 35 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ashwin-ravichandran |
| Lindsey Elkin | Mentor | 0 | — |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Oze | Oze brings African small businesses into the digital era. It is an app that makes it easy for businesses to track sales, expenses, and customer information. The data is analyzed to provide tailored recommendations, reports, and business education. If the entrepreneur needs a little extra support, an Oze Coach is just a click away. As they are usingOze to manage their business and learn how to run it better, we are learning about them. Using this data and machine learning, we can predict their credit risk and provide them with affordable capital from our banking partners. With over 150,000 registered users, Oze is the largest online community of SMEs in West Africa. The most exciting thing is that Oze works; 97% of businesses that have used Oze for at least 9 months are growing or profitable or both! |  |  | Feb 20, 2025 |  |
| Sayetech | SAYeTECH is a product and a service-oriented Limited Liability company that designs and builds smart agricultural machinery suited for African conditions and use. SAYeTECH is an entrepreneurial design, manufacturing and service provision company; for agricultural machines. SAYeTECH also provide fabrication training and computer-aided designservices to impact the manufacturing industry and organizations. | $50K | Grant | Dec 04, 2024 |  |
| Koa Academy | Koa provides an IEB education for children in grades 4-12 through an online learning environment that is both structured and individualized. | $50K | Seed | Mar 25, 2024 |  |
| Oze | Oze brings African small businesses into the digital era. It is an app that makes it easy for businesses to track sales, expenses, and customer information. The data is analyzed to provide tailored recommendations, reports, and business education. If the entrepreneur needs a little extra support, an Oze Coach is just a click away. As they are usingOze to manage their business and learn how to run it better, we are learning about them. Using this data and machine learning, we can predict their credit risk and provide them with affordable capital from our banking partners. With over 150,000 registered users, Oze is the largest online community of SMEs in West Africa. The most exciting thing is that Oze works; 97% of businesses that have used Oze for at least 9 months are growing or profitable or both! | $700K | Seed | Jan 13, 2021 |  |
| Shopa | Shopa is a digital platform that engages the gap between informal retailers and manufacturers for ordering and delivery services. | $100K | Seed | Sep 24, 2020 |  |
| Heny | Heny is a booking platform and a market place for amazing things to do. We are listing experiences from local curators to give our customers a taste of the rich African culture. We are enabling customers to Discover, Book and plan for interesting activities while we provide jobs and extra revenue to our Curators. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Sep 23, 2020 |  |
| Eleka | Eleka is a platform that provides data collection and enhancing the information-gathering process of customers. It makes the process of customer data collection fun and simple.Their services are Customer On-boarding, Enhanced Customer Experience, Chat Form Filling, and Improved Customer Relationships. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Sep 23, 2020 |  |
| KPI Lens | KPI Lens is a platform that automates and makes easier the reporting, monitoring, and evaluation process for development organizations. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Sep 23, 2020 |  |
| Boxconn Technologies | Boxconn connects third-party logistics services with businesses and individuals who wish to find an easily scalable, faster, and affordable logistics fleet with a primary focus on Africa. We provide software tools such as an interactive dashboard, APIs, Data Analytics, and a Dynamic Pricing algorithm to assist Businesses on our highly secure andencrypted platform. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Sep 23, 2020 |  |
| Joovlin | Joovlin is a fintech and e-commerce focused startup, solving order management problems for micro suppliers and retailers | $100K | Pre-Seed | Sep 23, 2020 |  |

10 of 14 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Ingressive Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ingressive-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [AfricInvest](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/afric-invest) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Anorak Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/anorak-ventures-2) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Band of Angels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/band-of-angels) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Ground Squirrel Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ground-squirrel-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [KFW DEG](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kfw-deg) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [Everywhere Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/everywhere-ventures) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does MEST AFRICA invest in?

MEST AFRICA invests primarily in E-Commerce, FinTech and Retail startups, most often at Pre-Seed and Seed stage. Most of the 14 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Ghana. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact MEST AFRICA?

Public channels for MEST AFRICA include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at MEST AFRICA?

The team at MEST AFRICA includes Ashwin Ravichandran (Managing Director) and Lindsey Elkin (Mentor). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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