Entrepreneur of the Year Award: Emerging Markets in the Global South
As tech and entrepreneurship surge across the Global South, how do you choose your next market, and pivot when the rules change? Join the 2025 Entrepreneur of the Year Award winners as they dive into the real challenges of scaling in emerging markets: choosing where to go, navigating local roadblocks, adapting to shifting audiences, and reframing both success and failure as learning tools.
Speakers
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Kennedy Ekezie-JosephCEO of Waymaker & Founder of KippaKennedy Ekezie-Joseph
CEO of Waymaker & Founder of Kippa
KippaKennedy Ekezie-Joseph is the CEO of Waymaker and Founder of Kippa, a financial management platform empowering African small businesses. Born in Lagos and raised in Calabar, Kennedy was deeply influenced by witnessing small merchants struggle with manual bookkeeping systems that limited their growth potential. At just 16, he founded the Calabar Youth Council for Women's Rights to combat female genital mutilation across 200 communities in Nigeria. Kennedy graduated as the youngest-ever student from the University of Calabar at 19, before spearheading TikTok's expansion across Africa. Founded in 2021, Kippa has revolutionized how 1.2 million African businesses operate by digitizing their financial management. The platform has processed over $3 billion in transactions, and created 235 jobs for young professionals across six countries. By transitioning businesses from paper ledgers to digital systems, Kippa has eliminated the need for 2.4 billion pages of paper, significantly reducing environmental impact while providing underserved entrepreneurs access to formal financial services previously beyond reach. Kennedy has received numerous accolades including the Queen's Young Leader Award from Queen Elizabeth II, the Forbes 30 Under 30 Award in Finance, The Future Prize for Technology, and President Obama's Young African Leaders Fellowship. He is a Yenching Scholar (China's Rhodes Scholarship) and two-time Nigerian National Debate Champion (2015-2017). Kennedy lives in Lagos, championing technological solutions that create both economic prosperity and social impact across Africa's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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Carlos AndradeCEO and Co-FounderCarlos Andrade
CEO and Co-Founder
Manzana VerdeCarlos Andrade is the CEO and co-founder of Manzana Verde, a foodtech startup tackling food, labor, and economic injustice in Latin America. Born in Piura, a small city in northern Peru, Carlos overcame cancer at age 23, an experience that reshaped his values and led him to create a purpose-driven business. In 2019, together with co-founder Larissa Arias, he launched Manzana Verde to bridge the gap between healthy eating and affordability for the Latin American middle class. Since then, Manzana Verde has delivered over 4 million meals across 6 cities in Peru, Mexico, and Colombia, helping more than 40 small restaurant owners grow their businesses and generating over 1,200 jobs. The company’s zero-CAPEX model uses partner kitchens and proprietary tech to deliver affordable, tailored nutrition starting at $4 per meal. Carlos’s work has been recognized by Seedstars as Peru’s Best Startup (2019), awarded by the Peruvian Ministry of Production, and supported by leading venture funds such as Salkantay, FJ Labs and Matterscale. Today, he continues to inspire young entrepreneurs from underserved regions, proving that it’s possible to build a scalable, tech-enabled business with high social impact, starting from a small city in an emerging market.