BleagLee Leads Africa’s AI Manufacturing Push with $1m Milken-Motsepe Win

The Milken Institute  and the Motsepe Foundation  are honored to announce 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 today at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.

BleagLee was awarded top honors 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 totaling $750,000 were awarded and disbursed among five finalists, each receiving $30,000, and the 10 semifinalists, 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. 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.”

– Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe, co-founder and CEO, Motsepe Foundation

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 semifinalists.

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 semifinalists 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.