Clarisse Iribagiza is one of Africa’s most consequential technology entrepreneurs, a computer scientist, serial founder, and researcher whose journey from a university dorm room in Kigali to the corridors of MIT and the World Economic Forum represents the very best of what African innovation can produce.
Her story begins in 2010, when at just 22 years old and still studying Computer Engineering at the University of Rwanda’s College of Science and Technology, Clarisse founded HeHe Limited, a mobile technology company built to solve a problem she saw every day: inefficient supply chains cutting off Rwandan businesses from the customers they needed to reach.
What started as a bold undergraduate idea grew, over the next decade, into Rwanda’s largest e-commerce platform, digitising over 200 businesses, 60% of which were female-led, and serving more than two million customers across the country.
In 2017, Japanese internet giant DMM.com Group acquired HeHe, a landmark deal that placed Rwanda firmly on the global tech investment map and validated what Clarisse had known from the beginning that African entrepreneurs, given the right tools and ambition, can build world-class companies.
But building one successful company was never the ceiling. Driven by a conviction that Africa’s deepest problems require its most advanced solutions, Clarisse went on to found DeepTechAfrica in 2022 as a Fellow at MIT’s Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship.
A venture studio and investment fund, DeepTechAfrica backs African deep tech startups at the frontier of science and technology, partnering with global ecosystem builders including Hello Tomorrow, Founder Institute, and The Karman Project to ensure African entrepreneurs have the resources, networks, and capital to bring transformative ideas to market.
She is currently pursuing her PhD at Arizona State University’s School of Innovation, focusing on innovation ecosystems and the financial models that can drive inclusive technological growth across Africa.
Her impact extends well beyond the companies she has built. Since 2016, Clarisse has served on the African Development Bank’s Presidential Youth Advisory Group, advising on the future of work and youth entrepreneurship.
In 2019, she was appointed as one of UNCTAD’s seven eTrade for Women Advocates globally, championing digital inclusion and economic empowerment for women entrepreneurs in developing countries. She also serves on the board of Allan and Gill Gray Philanthropy East Africa and the Africa Climate Foundation’s Advisory Council.
The accolades have followed the work. Clarisse was named in Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 in 2015, recognised as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, selected as a Karman Fellow in 2021, named one of OkayAfrica’s 100 Women in 2017, and included among Italian think tank LSDP’s Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013, Rwanda’s First Lady Jeanette Kagame honoured her as one of the Imbuto Foundation’s Celebrating Young Rwandan Achievers.
Clarisse Iribagiza is proof that a young woman from Kigali, armed with code, curiosity, and conviction, can build something that reaches millions, and that Africa’s most powerful technology stories are still being written.
