Four Africans make MIT Technology Review's 2026 Innovators Under 35 list

MIT Technology Review on 8 September unveiled its 2026 Innovators Under 35 list, naming 35 scientists and entrepreneurs from nine countries. Four of the honourees are African: Joseph Nguthiru (Kenya), Diana Orembe and Paschal Kija (Tanzania), and Loza Tadesse (Ethiopia). The list was drawn from 550 nominations and vetted by 44 expert judges. Past honourees include Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, Spotify’s Daniel Ek, AMD CEO Lisa Su and AI researcher Ilya Sutskever.

“We’re using a free, fast-growing plant that’s there for anyone to take,” said Joseph Nguthiru of his company HyaPak, explaining how water hyacinth — an invasive weed choking waterways — is converted into biodegradable packaging.

Context and profiles of the four African innovators

• Joseph Nguthiru, 28 — HyaPak (Kenya). Nguthiru founded HyaPak after being stranded in a mass of water hyacinth on Lake Naivasha. HyaPak pays local fishermen to harvest the plant, dries it and extracts cellulose to produce biodegradable products such as seedling bags, produce wrapping and packaging for the flower export industry. The company is co-developing materials with a German logistics firm and is in talks to license its technology abroad.

• Diana Orembe, 30 — NovFeed (Tanzania). Orembe built NovFeed to address expensive, low-quality fish feed. The startup collects food waste — potato peels, pineapple husks, expired fruit — ferments it with selected microbes and converts it into protein-rich pellets. NovFeed’s product is used by close to 500 fish farmers and costs roughly 25% less than imported feed. A new factory that opened in May increased production capacity twentyfold, and the company has begun converting a fermentation byproduct into organic fertiliser. “Fish should be a cheap source of protein in Tanzania, but it’s not,” Orembe said.

• Paschal Kija, 28 — Afya Lead (Tanzania). Trained as a medical student, Kija co-designed the Mkanda Salama (“Safe Wrap”) with colleague James Kalema to tackle postpartum haemorrhage, a leading cause of maternal death. The $70 elastic belt with a hand-operated pump allows staff to apply and monitor abdominal compression. A 2023 study found the device stopped postpartum bleeding in 73% of women within 20 minutes. Afya Lead has deployed the wrap in 85 facilities and is running clinical trials with the UN Population Fund and Tanzania’s main government health research institution. The story that helped inspire the device included a patient who travelled more than 60 miles for a blood transfusion.

• Loza Tadesse, 34 — MIT (Ethiopian-born researcher). Now a mechanical engineering professor at MIT, Tadesse developed a breath-based sensor to diagnose pneumonia and created SpectroGen, an AI tool that generates multiple spectroscopic readings — Raman, x‑ray and infrared — from a single measurement. In tests, SpectroGen’s outputs matched nearly 700 conventional laboratory measurements of mineral samples. “I could carry a simple instrument … that brings this whole big lab with me,” Tadesse said.

Outlook

This year’s African cohort illustrates two clear patterns: locally grown startups solving immediate problems in Kenya and Tanzania, and diaspora researchers advancing diagnostics and sensing from elite institutions. While no Nigerian made the 2026 list, a Nigerian-born scholar was recently named to an influential AI list earlier this year. Both Nguthiru and Kija are already exploring expansion beyond their home countries, and NovFeed’s scaled factory and Afya Lead’s ongoing clinical trials suggest these innovations could reach wider regional impact. The selection process — from 550 nominations and 44 judges to a final 35 — continues to spotlight technologies that aim for practical, scalable solutions across health, environment and food systems.