Pelkins Ajanoh (HBS ’22) shares how his venture, CassVita, is extending the shelf life of cassava to combat hunger and empower farmers.
Growing up in Cameroon, Pelkins Ajanoh (HBS ’22) spent holidays with his grandmother. She planted and farmed cassava, a root vegetable commonly grown in Africa that ranks fourth amongst staple crops. Encouraged by friends and family to “go to school so you don’t have to farm,” Ajanoh excelled as a student, landing at MIT to study mechanical engineering. During a student internship at GM, where he worked on self-driving cars, Ajanoh contributed to a patent related to radar for autonomous vehicles.
“Getting that patent was a burst of realization that you can do something valuable in the world,” shared Ajanoh. “After that internship, I started to think about what kind of problem I wanted to solve.”
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