ASENTI Africa

The African Summit on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASENTI) was directly inspired by the 2011 One Young World Summit in Zurich. Upon arriving back in Kenya, Calvin immediately set out to influence entrepreneurial spaces in Africa. The continent reportedly has the highest percentage of entrepreneurs among working-age adults in the world, and this presents an opportunity to expand incubation programmes for budding entrepreneurs there. ASENTI has successfully accelerated entrepreneurship throughout Africa by helping young businesses reach the next stage of scalability and providing them with networking opportunities.
Calvin received similar opportunities at the 2011 One Young World Summit, connecting with young people who were generating impact in their own communities. He has since stayed in touch with most of the people he met through One Young World, and utilised the inspiration he found there to begin his work with ASENTI while maintaining a community upon which he could rely. ASENTI has developed strong partnerships with other organisations interested in African entrepreneurship, including UNFPA, UNIDO, and Oracle. Currently, the organisation has several different initiatives, including an agritech mentorship programme, the main summit in Kenya as well as several smaller, virtual summits regionally where more specific challenges can be addressed. Calvin frequently contributes to start-up discussions in his own country.
At the ASENTI summit, 10 start-ups are selected out of 100 applicants to pitch their business idea and model to an audience of successful entrepreneurs. So far more than 2,500 people have attended an ASENTI summit, while 2,000 people have undergone incubation and mentorship through ASENTI initiatives from 30 African countries. A further 1,000 have been impacted through ASENTI’s work with partner organisations. ASENTI Africa focuses on sustainable energy, fintech, agribusiness, health innovation, and technology, through which it hopes to empower and influence the continent’s entrepreneurial spaces.
"I have become more confident as a leader and I derive that from One Young World. The kind of platform it gives you exposes you to people you only see through media or hear about, and that gives you confidence"