21/05/2026
Congratulations Forks
Built in Africa, solving one of the biggest problems on ground
BleagLee, a homegrown Cameroonian startup co-founded by Juveline Ngum, just won a $1 million grand prize (~558M FCFA) at the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AI & Manufacturing, beating 2,000+ entrepreneurs from 100 countries across 5 continents!
Here's all you need to know about BleagLee waste management 👇🏿
It started with a powerful idea, building a smart cooking system made entirely from recycled materials.
A smokeless cook stove crafted from scrap metal, clean cooking fuel produced in solar-powered bio-digesters from plastic & agricultural waste, and a digital platform for cooks to track & offset their carbon footprint.
The stoves are 80% cheaper than firewood, cook food 5x faster than traditional Cameroonian ovens, & even monitor indoor air quality using AI-powered sensors because indoor air pollution kills between 1.6 and 4 million people globally every year.
BleagLee also trains women in communities to source scrap metal and build the stoves themselves, turning users into makers.
Now?
Bleaglee has levelled up. Using patented AI that detects, collects and converts plastic, agricultural and e-waste into premium industrial products like engineered recycled polymers, 3D printing filaments, and bio-based carbon materials.
Their mission: (eliminate 300 million tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions by 2030.)
This is what we call using innovative technology to solve community problems ( Congratulations team BleagLee)