10. Jenny Leslie, Jason Lurie, and Alexio Capovilla
Vital Stats:
- Business: Biotech Africa
- Industry: Biotech
- Business est: 2014
- Website: Biotechafrica.com
BioTech Africa is the sole African manufacturer of recombinant proteins. This is an essential component of diagnostic test kits used to identify a range of diseases including: HIV, Hepatitis C and the Zika virus.
BioTech Africa already exports its recombinant proteins to clients in Asia, Europe and the US. Since it was launched this start-up has raised over USD 20 million in funding. Since, South Africa uses recombinant proteins within a self-test kit, Jenny Leslie is looking to cut out the middleman and start making the BioSmart self-test kits as well.
“Sales have grown, they have probably grown by like a thousand percent,” jokes Jenny Leslie. She went on to say that Biotech Africa sells a milligram of its proteins for roughly USD100. “We want to be in a position where we can make money, and we are tettering on that now.”