Jahazii Wins $10,000 at Inaugural Zest for Africa Challenge

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Hillary Chabot

Hillary Chabot is a writer for Babson Thought & Action and Babson Magazine. An award-winning journalist, she is known for her insightful reporting and dedication to detailed storytelling. With a career spanning over two decades, she has covered a wide range of topics, from presidential campaigns and government policy to neighborhood issues and investigative series. As a reporter for The Boston Herald, Hillary earned a reputation for tenacity and integrity. Her work at Babson College fuels her passions—to learn something new every day and conduct thoughtful, empathic interviews. She’s thrilled to be at Babson College, where students, faculty, staff members and classes provide compelling copy daily.

March 19, 2025

Group of four people applaud while standing at a podium

Daniel Zock MSF’25 (left), president of the Black Graduate Club, and other members of the club applaud the winners of the inaugural Zest for Africa Challenge. (Photo: Vishal Shrivastava MBA'26)

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A venture helping enterprises in Africa secure loans and providing employees with early access to their paychecks recently won a new Babson pitch competition called the Zest for Africa Challenge (ZAC).

The winning venture’s co-founder, Vaidehi Tembhekar MBA’21, of Jahazii, will receive $10,000 in funding provided by Innovest Afrika. The win comes after Tembhekar MBA’21, and Jahazii, claimed first place in the alumni category of Babson’s acclaimed B.E.T.A. (Babson Entrepreneurial Thought & Action®) Challenge in 2024.

The new pitch competition is a student-led initiative joining other entrepreneurship empowerment programs on the African continent and aiming to uniquely provide early-stage African founders access to the network and resources from Babson College.

“We launched this flagship initiative to help increase Babson’s footprint and brand equity across Africa by empowering select entrepreneurs on the continent yearly,” said ZAC founding lead Daniel Zock MSF’25, president of the Black Graduate Club. Zock pitched the ZAC initiative to Babson Africa Conference’s Co-Chair, Olubumni Ajahi MBA’23, only a few days after he arrived at Babson.

Many of the winning gifts came from Innovest Afrika, a 501c3 led by Babson alumni Femi Moito MBA’20 and Jacob Fohtung MBA’19, MSF’20 with a mission to help accelerate 5,000 Africa-founded startups by 2030.

A total of five ventures gathered in person and remotely at Olin Hall’s Winn Auditorium on Feb. 28 to pitch their businesses. Coming in second place was Cyprian Kibuka, CEO of TopUpCare, a company that improves access to specialized healthcare in Africa. Awarded third place was Maryanne Gichanga and her venture AgriTech Analytics Limited, a company that uses artificial intelligence to provide small farmers with soil and crop insights, allowing them to better forecast their production.

Both runner-up ventures gained immediate access to Innovest Afrika’s next Accelerator Program, which provides support and resources to help scale African businesses.

Members of the Black Graduate Club already are planning on holding a second ZAC.

“The first is always the most challenging, but this pilot edition’s results give us confidence to push for more resourceful future editions,” Zock said.