CassVita Inc

My name is Pelkins Ajanoh. I am the CEO of CassVita and our story is one of empowerment, inspired by my grandmother.

Growing up, I admired many things about my grandmother; most of all was how caring she was towards her grandchildren, especially me. We developed a special bond because my middle name, Mbacham, was given to me after my granddad (her husband) who had passed just before I was born and so she somewhat saw me as his “reincarnation” and would affectionately call me “my husband”. But there was one thing that society made me ashamed of about her. She was a farmer, a cassava farmer, poor and illiterate. Soceity told me, “Go to school so you can get a better life for yourself”.

Following the advice to “go to school”, I developed a fascination for the sciences and eventually graduated from high school as the best science student in the county in the Advanced Level (A Level) exam. My performance eventually led me to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I thought I could now pursue my passion for science, free from the shame of being the grandson of a poor, cassava farmer. And I did just that — worked in robotics and even patented some of the earliest self-driving car technologies.

But something happened; my grandmother’s health started to deteriorate and I became increasingly bothered by the fact that my grandmother was going to live and die in poverty just like other cassava farmers, whereas they cultivated a crop that held such incredible, untapped potential especially as a wheat alternative. I had shared so many amazing memories with her that I felt compelled to do something! In addition, around this time, the Russian war in Ukraine started to create a global wheat scarcity leading multinationals and governments to start considering moving towards wheat alternatives. It was at this juncture that I decided that it was time to end what was a potentially enticing early career in robotics and go back to the thing I had always been ashamed of. However, this time around, my objective was to turn it from a path to poverty into a beacon of prosperity.

Looking to hone my scientific skills and to acquire the business acumen needed to scale this effort, I enrolled in the MS/MBA program jointly offered by Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard Business School,graduating with honors.

Sadly, my grandma passed in 2021 (at 97 years). But today, we partner with over 2,500 farmers, increasing their earnings by up to 400%. Working with us is fostering our mission to create prosperity for vulnerable farming communities.