Start-Ups Meet Experts in Innovation Clinic

The 3rd day of the Festival of Cooling brought together start-ups, innovators, cooling experts, university students, and staff, among others, to celebrate the intersection of innovation, design, and entrepreneurship in the cooling sector, where ideas become prototypes and evolve into scalable solutions that improve lives and markets.

The focus was on creatives, start-ups, and innovation hubs, recognising that solving the cold-chain challenge requires bold ideas, entrepreneurial energy, and creative problem-solving.

As part of the start-up pitch competition, a longlist of innovators, mainly in cooling for post-harvest handling, was invited to engage with experts in technology, supply chains, market development, business modelling, and financing.

The start-ups include NTOM, which develops wearable sensors; Livestock IoT, which focuses on smart livestock monitoring; Green Energy Technology Ltd, which offers solar-powered storage solutions; and Solar Powered Grain Drier, which provides solar-powered grain drying solutions.

There are also Dukuze Investment, engaged in produce processing; Hanga Vision, specialising in thermoelectric and evaporative solar cooling technologies; Greenoy Africa, with cooling systems powered by solar energy; Prime Rabbit, which processes, packages, and stores rabbit meat; and Fresh Harvest Market, a fresh produce market enterprise.

They benefitted from expert advice, feedback on prototypes and business models, networking opportunities, and guidance.

Founders and their ideas

Marie Rose Sabina, Founder of Green Energy Technology Ltd (GET), one of the attending start-ups, said the festival was an opportunity to gain valuable experience and advice from experts to help their company support farmers in combating post-harvest losses by offering solar-powered cold rooms for storing vegetables, as well as refrigerated transport solutions.

“Currently, we’re seeking significant investment because cold-chain infrastructure requires heavy capital. We want to expand across Rwanda and eventually into neighbouring African countries.” The start-up is now looking for angel investors. “We’re also exploring innovations like mobile cold rooms that can be temporarily placed on farms. We are aiming to raise $500,000. With that, we could invest in infrastructure, buy one large and one medium refrigerated truck, and build three cold rooms at agri-hubs that can each store at least five tonnes. We would also expand our team,” she said.

Patrick Ndayisaba, Founder of Greenover Africa, with a cooling system powered by solar energy, is focused on helping small-scale farmers in rural areas without access to electricity reduce post-harvest losses.

“We have successfully developed a prototype, and we are currently looking for partners to help us scale up the project,” he said, noting that his team was exploring the Festival of Cooling for collaboration opportunities.

Students and their futures

Various polytechnic students also had the chance to meet with innovators and experts during the festival.

“I have learned a lot from the Festival of Cooling. I study electrical and electronics engineering. After touring the cooling centre, I realised I can innovate within cooling systems by using microcontrollers and other tools to time fridges with variable limits. I can also add sensors to monitor levels of cooling,” said Gamariel Dusingizumukiza, a student from ULK Polytechnic Institute.

A total of 25 students from the Rwanda Institute of Conservation Agriculture (RICA), 27 from the College of Science and Technology (CST), 26 from the University of Tourism, Technology and Business Studies (UTB), and 26 from ULK Polytechnic participated. Similarly, Rwanda Polytechnic – Kigali College had 26 students.

Martin Krause, Director of the Climate Change Division at the UN Environment Programme, which has been supporting the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES) in Kigali, praised the event: “The Cooling Festival is a brilliant idea because it brings together the private sector, education institutions, professors, students, international organisations, and partners. Cold storage rooms need to be maintained. We need technicians to service cooling equipment. That’s why it is important to work with polytechnic institutes, universities, and other partners.” 

We aim to take this discussion further at our next event, A Cool World Conference, in Birmingham, UK, where we will meet and talk with many of the pioneers, researchers, and academics working on and developing the technologies on show at the festival today.