Richard Seshie
Richard Seshie is passionate about boosting startup ecosystems in Africa and beyond. As a former founder of a startup in Ghana and having visited over 20 African countries; he witnessed first hand the challenges and obstacles faced by entrepreneurs in under ressourced and maturing ecosystems. Currently as the founder of Blue Bag, his firm specializes in engineering entrepreneurship and open innovation programs for different stakeholders and offers implantation facilitation services to foreign startups in Africa.
Richard is the founder of Association 3535, a not-for-profit Initiative Studio that designs and implements initiatives to transform African startup ecosystems. Notably, he led the “Startup Cote d’Ivoire” Initiative that produced Cote d’Ivoire’s first collaborative white paper containing 64 propositions on ecosytem-building and will unveil in 2019 the ranking of the “Top 10 Best Cities for Startups in Africa”. His organizations have helped identify and engage over 1,000 promising young African entrepreneurs with running ventures.
One of his recent spin-off initiatives Africa Tech Effect is a mission-driven initiative that makes use of Chat Bots to deliver meaningful social conversations to youth in Africa and spur social change. Chatbots could be leveraged for environmental education, combatting radicalisation and other social issues of our times. Richard capitalizes on his 12 years of experience in both the startup, citizen and corporate sectors, notably with Microsoft.
Through his work, Richard has been honored with over 40 recognitions and fellowships worldwide. He is an Ashoka Fellow, a 2017 Young Leader of the Africa-France Foundation, a 2015 President’s Emerging Young Entrepreneur Award recipient and the 2012 Orange African Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
