FRI MAY 08 2026-theGBJournal| The Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation Thursday announced BleagLee, a Cameroon-based AI-powered waste recycling company, as the $1 million Grand Prize winner of the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AI and Manufacturing.
The award is designed to recognize established companies driving innovation in Africa’s manufacturing sector with the potential to scale, create jobs, and spread the adoption of these technologies across the world.
The winners were announced at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
BleagLee was awarded top honours for its work in leveraging AI-powered waste collection to convert plastic, agricultural, and e-waste into premium recycled products.
Tanzania-based Freshpack Technologies was named the $250,000 Runner-Up for its AI-powered cold storage, which tackles food waste in Africa.
Digitech Oasis Limited from the United Kingdom received $100,000 for the Most Advanced Use of 4IR, demonstrating technological capabilities that will shape competitive manufacturing over the next decade.
Additional interim prizes totalling $750,000 were awarded and disbursed among five finalists, each receiving $30,000, and the 10 semi-finalists, each receiving $50,000, throughout this prize cycle.
All awards are unrestricted, enabling teams to direct their winnings toward what will most impact their businesses, strengthening their pipeline, speeding real-world pilots, and unlocking promising innovations.
BleagLee is revolutionizing waste management in Cameroon using patented AI software to detect and collect waste across communities and processing it into high-value products, such as engineered recycled polymers, 3D printing filaments, and bio-based carbon materials.
By combining cutting-edge technology with community-driven impact, BleagLee is turning an environmental crisis into economic opportunity while working toward mitigating 300 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions by 2030.
“Africa is producing world-class AI and technology innovation that is solving problems and creating opportunities on a global scale. And that story is only beginning to be told,” said Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe, co-founder and CEO, Motsepe Foundation.
“When we invest in innovation that is both locally grounded and globally minded, the returns are limitless. I am delighted to see partnerships like this one ensure the brightest minds have the resources, networks, and platforms they need to scale their work and shape a more prosperous and equitable world.”
AI and Manufacturing is the fourth prize awarded as part of the Milken–Motsepe Innovation Prize Program, a series of competitive multimillion-dollar global competitions and awards designed to incentivize and reward bold, innovative technological solutions to address pressing economic and environmental challenges in Africa and across the globe.
Launched in May 2025, the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AI and Manufacturing attracted more than 2,000 entrepreneurs from 100 countries across five continents, with just 10 being selected as semi-finalists.
Each team underwent a comprehensive judging process that evaluated four key criteria: commercial viability, operational economics, technological integration, and market scalability.
In December 2025, 10 semi-finalists pitched their innovations to investors at the Milken Institute Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi. From this group, an expert panel of judges selected five finalists—BleagLee, Digitech Oasis Limited, Freshpack Technologies, Spiro, and Toto Safi Limited—to advance to the final stage of the innovation award, pitching their company’s innovations at the 2026 Milken Institute Global Conference.
Since its launch in 2021, the Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize Program has awarded over $8 million in funding to more than 50 innovators worldwide. Participating teams have raised nearly 31 times the Grand Prize in additional outside investments, reaching and impacting over one million community members across the globe.
The Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize Program offers free, curated resources and online events not only to award winners but also to more than 12,000 global entrepreneurs.
Announcing a New Prize in Circular Economy
The next Milken-Motsepe Prize will focus on the circular economy, a new award designed to recognize companies using technology to enhance circular economy practices across a variety of industries.
With $2 million in total prizes, including a $1 million Grand Prize, the Prize in Circular Economy seeks companies that develop and scale commercially viable, technology-enabled solutions that replace linear “take-make-waste” systems with regenerative, resource-efficient value chains.
The award also aims to address the complex realities of industrial waste management systems in Africa. Successful teams will demonstrate solutions that deliver measurable environmental and social impact, while providing training and reskilling opportunities to support safer, more specialized waste management practices.
“Our prize program has become a powerful engine for discovering and accelerating extraordinary innovators who are tackling some of the world’s most urgent challenges across industries,” said Emily Musil, PhD, managing director of Environmental and Social Innovation at the Milken Institute.
“As we turn our focus to the Circular Economy, we are especially energized to champion entrepreneurs who are fundamentally reimagining how materials are used, recovered, and reused.
These innovators are not only reducing waste—they are unlocking new economic value, strengthening local industries, and driving resilient, inclusive growth. As we enter our fifth year of the Milken-Motsepe Prize, we celebrate and acknowledge its growth—and its role in advancing solutions that deliver lasting benefits for communities, markets, and the environment.”
By extending the life cycle of materials, strengthening local manufacturing, and improving both upstream and downstream waste management systems, the prize seeks to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and inclusive circular economy in Africa.
The Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize Program seeks companies that must meet the following eligibility requirements: have over two years of continuous operation, generate over $500,000 in revenue and raised capital, have institutional, corporate, and/or public‑sector partnerships, has a solution currently deployed on the African continent, has clear evidence of social impact and job creation, and demonstrates operational readiness to deploy more than $1 million in funding.
Teams from a variety of businesses are encouraged to apply, and teams will be required to submit vertical-specific metrics from industries such as food systems, packaging, electronics, fashion and textiles, construction, and the built environment.
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