Rwandan entrepreneur says ACES is breaking down “the biggest challenges” for African tech start-ups

A Rwandan entrepreneur hoping to revolutionise marketplace cooling has said organisations like ACES are helping to break down “the biggest challenges” faced by African tech start-ups.

Mihigo Bienvenue Heaven’s, CEO and co-founder of HangaVision, said that African tech start-ups often struggle to bring new technologies to the market because of the lack of in-country testing capabilities.

Bienvenue, a 20-year-old mechanical engineering student at Rwanda Polytechnic Kigali College, established HangaVision with the help of two fellow students in 2023. The company is currently developing a multi-compartment, solar-powered refrigerator for use in markets, which they hope will reduce post-harvest food loss in rural areas.

“In Africa, sometimes we don’t trust new technologies,” he said. “When we talk to investors, they think it is risky because it hasn’t been tested. But organisations like ACES provide facilities that test and validate the product so that, when you approach investors, you can convince them.”

ACES is currently commissioning an environmental test chamber, the first of its kind in Africa, which will allow businesses to test their products across a range of temperatures and humidity levels. “We are looking into testing our products, and with facilities like ACES, this will be possible,” Bienvenue said. “As the country develops, and we have more technologies to do testing and certification, things will get better for the [Rwandan refrigeration] industry.”

Bienvenue said his journey towards starting HangaVision began in his childhood. “Growing up here in Rwanda, there is a point at which you get to understand that this world has many problems,” he said. “I saw that vendors in markets would have to throw away a certain amount of the produce they had harvested or bought. It was normal. I said: ‘One day, I will have to do something about that.’”

As he grew older, Bienvenue became increasingly interested in using technology to solve problems and “benefit Africa”. During his first year of studying mechanical engineering, Bienvenue went on a field trip to ACES. He recalled: “We saw their facilities, and I learned that there are more resources available than I thought. I saw how those resources could profit the country and help solve problems.”

The trip inspired him to assemble a team and “look for a problem”. After speaking to farmers across the country, Bienvenue said: “We saw that only those who sell items for export have access to cold-chain technology. Farmers and small vendors in markets don’t have the money to invest in cold rooms.”

Together, they devised a solar-powered refrigerator with an array of compartments. “It differs from traditional refrigerators or large-sized cold rooms in that every individual can have their own compartment,” Bienvenue said. “I see this being used mainly in markets, but also in remote areas where it can either be connected to the grid or run off-grid.”

They plan to operate the refrigerator as a subscription-based system, where market vendors and farmers can pay for the amount of hours and size of compartment that they need. Bienvenue said they have been working with MTN so that subscriptions can be processed through the popular Mobile Money system.

Initially, the team planned to use thermoelectric technology in their refrigerator. Thermoelectric cooling uses electricity to transfer heat through a semiconductor, cooling one side while heating the other. This type of cooling is considered more reliable than other methods because there are no moving parts or coolants involved. However, thermoelectric refrigerators are generally less efficient than compressor-based refrigerators.

“We received some advice from professionals at the Festival of Cooling, and we realised that the technology isn’t adapted to the scale of what we are trying to do,” Bienvenue said. “So, we changed to using compression-based refrigeration technology. We had to weigh low maintenance against high efficiency. For us, higher efficiency is better.”

Bienvenue said it is “standard” in Africa to accept that “when I buy a product, a certain amount will end up in the bin”. He said HangaVision is aiming to change that, so that people “don’t waste the little they have” and everyone has access to the food they need.

“When I start working in the morning, what pushes me is the thought that we are actually doing something to change that mindset,” he added. “It keeps me going.”