AIS Official Launch: Student Entrepreneurship Club
The official launch of the Africa Innovators Society at CMU-Africa, drawing 80 students from across Kigali for a night with industry leaders from Jasiri, 250 Startups, and CHARIS UAS.
What happened
On November 7, 2023, AIS, then operating as the Student Entrepreneurship Club, officially launched at Carnegie Mellon University Africa. The launch event drew 80 students from CMU-Africa, the African Leadership University, Davis College, and the University of Rwanda.
The conversation
Students engaged directly with industry leaders from:
- Jasiri, pan-African talent investor backing first-time founders
- 250 Startups, Rwanda's flagship early-stage accelerator
- Eric Rutayisire, founder of CHARIS UAS, a Rwandan drone company building Africa-grown technology
The speakers shared candid lessons on building innovative, market-relevant solutions in an emerging market, and what it really takes to move from idea to launch.
Impact
The launch was the first signal that CMU-Africa students wanted a space where entrepreneurship was practical, not theoretical. It set the tone for everything AIS would build next: bootcamps, hackathons, delegations, and eventually a full Leadership Summit two years later.