They say behind every success lies a story of struggle. That is what exactly embodies Cynthia Umutoniwabo’s life and career journey – which can be described as a rollercoaster of events and moments. Many will remember her as the lady in a white shirt and green trousers, who emerged the winner of Hanga Pitchfest 2023, after her climate tech startup Loopa – emerged the winner of the annual technology competition, taking home a cheque of Rwf50 million. Behind the smiling and excited young woman perched between President Paul Kagame and Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is a story of resilience, defiance and hard work. ALSO READ: Photos: Rwandan climate tech startup wins innovator of the year prize Before she appeared on the big stage, the 35-year-old had some difficult decisions to make and intense battles to fight to get there, including surviving cancer, before setting out to pursue her goals, against all odds, to be where she is today. Before venturing out to launch her startup, Umutoniwabo had embarked on studying architecture, a course she had always wanted to study from childhood but she dropped out two years into her studies in Texas, United States of America. “I had always wanted to be an architect. I loved drawings, I loved structures, I loved infrastructure. I was that kid that enjoyed maths and physics, which is what I did in high school,” Umutoniwabo told The New Times in an interview. However, after completing her secondary education in 2006, she was admitted to Kigali Institute of Technology (KIST), now University of Rwanda - College of Science and Technology (UR-CST), but they were not offering architecture as a course. The only options KIST offered at the time were Civil engineering, which was competitive to get in, and Electronics and Electrical engineering, which she joined for one year but lost interest, since it wasn’t her choice. She went on to look for other options, and in 2009 she got a university to study architecture in Lafayette, Louisiana, Texas, but two years into it, she dropped out for personal reasons, but remained in the U.S, where she lived for 10 years. In 2019, shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer –she decided to return home for a fresh start with her two daughters. She wanted to do something else – something more invigorating and purposeful, but despite being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma – a type of cancer that attacks the lymphatic system. “Just a month before I moved back home, because I had just given birth to my second daughter, I had crazy pain in my leg. The doctor was saying it's because you had a C-section for people that are very familiar with that,” “The doctor kept saying it is because you had major surgery so they didn't look further but the pain kept getting stronger. I went to the emergency,” she recalls. Umutoniwabo says that despite being given pain management medication, the pain did not subside and that is when they decided to do further tests. For Umutoniwabo, the main concern were her two beautiful little daughters, the youngest being just two months old. “I was like let me go back home because I have my parents there. Let me go and then pick it from there,” she says. Her friends and relatives mobilised and she embarked on a treatment journey. Ironically, finding out that the doctor who was treating her is an old schoolmate, which made her decision to go back home even more rewarding. “The funny thing is my doctor who treated me, we went to the same high school, which was even more comfortable. I got treated here at King Faisal Hospital,” “I did six months of chemotherapy during Covid-19. So I kept travelling to India and Kenya, and then two years ago, they told me I was in remission,” she says, adding that she has never been so grateful. A turning point As she went through rounds of chemotherapy, Umutoniwabo pondered on what to do next. At the time, she joined Moringa School to pursue a course in Computer Software Engineering, under a project dubbed “Wecode”, which seeks to increase the number of women in software engineering. After that she joined a Jasiri programme, which identifies and supports aspiring entrepreneurs with impactful ideas, which is how the idea of Loopa was born. As a matter of fact, the idea of Loopa was not initially focusing on agriculture but it rather started from the problem that they were trying to solve, which was mainly turning the waste that we produce, mainly from food, into something valuable and at the same time reduce reliance on inorganic fertiliser. Her fight with cancer changed her perspective on life, in the sense that she realised that most times people think they have a lot of time, postponing something they would have done today to tomorrow because they believe they have time. “I think it was a test in realising that everything I need to do, I actually need to do now. I don't have to wait,” Umutoniwabo notes, adding that for her, it was about doing something she could leave behind for her children. “I wanted to leave a legacy, I wanted to do something impactful, not just for me or for my kids, but also, for society. I have always been driven towards building an impactful business,” she says. Similarly, being a mother also gave her a sense of purpose and responsibility, even as she faced adversity. She points out that the element of knowing that you're responsible for someone, young or adult, who counts on you and looks up to you, keeps one going. “I think being a mother gave me a sense of purpose. I have to do something for someone and they are relying on me,” she says, adding that being a mother in itself made her appreciate how strong mothers are. “I remember the first time I gave birth, because I was not here, my mother was not with me. After I gave birth, I called her and I said please forgive me for every little thing I've ever done to you,” she said after experiencing the rigours of childbirth. It is a period she went through a rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts, fearing for the worst, as any cancer patient. “As a cancer survivor, there is one thing you go through once they tell you the diagnosis, you feel like the first thing you think of is a death sentence. “I think one of the things that really helped me when I was going through that journey, because it's a very painful journey in terms of what it can do to your body but also your mental health, was not to listen to ‘you're about to die’.” “I surrounded myself with positive people,” she says, pointing out that the people she maintained in her close circle at the time were those who encouraged her. Umutoniwabo also learned how to enjoy small things and moments in life because they are not guaranteed, but most importantly surrounding herself with love helped. It was during the struggle with cancer that she met her co-founders to join the Jasiri programme, where they identified the problem they wanted to solve and they came up with Loopa. In fact, the initial idea was not focusing on agriculture. “We didn’t just think of the agriculture sector. We had to go through different things. We went to healthcare; we were trying to fix cues but we saw that we could not do a lot of things because none of us were doctors. It was very hard to implement that,” “We went through the informal sector, so we really dug deep into the problem, to be able to find a solution. It's a whole holistic journey to be able to get to talking about Loopa,” she says, explaining how the startup evolved. Through the Jasiri programme, which they joined at the beginning of 2023, they were given mentors and the resources to be able to actually go to the market and see and test what they tried to do, which is how Loopa was born six months later in July the same year. ALSO READ: How local start-up is leveraging-tech to transform organic waste into fertiliser The Hanga Pitchfest launchpad Later the same year, she applied for Hanga Pitchfest 2023, which she had no idea how big a stage it was, until she got into the thick of it to know the magnitude of the kind of competition she was in. Apart from propelling her to unimaginable levels of visibility in terms of clients and in terms of selling their idea to the world, winning the competition opened many doors for more funding and investment. “Hanga Pitchfest gave Loopa a stage to talk about what we're trying to fix and we are able to access not even just funding from investors but even the core people were trying to help in the first place, which are the small-scale farmers or even farmers in general,” “It gave us an international stage. You're able to create a community of people that could actually help you in terms of advancing or scaling the product you’re trying to bring on the table,” she says, adding that it was a ‘well-rounded holistic win.’ Today, they are able to produce ten times more of what they were producing before because from the money they won they were able to acquire machinery that they needed. “In terms of the impact, we were able to hire seven permanent employees,” she says, adding that they have been able to hire women whose lives have been changed thanks to decent employment and wages. Beyond scaling their production, Umutoniwabo says they have been able to give the end consumer quality products they can trust and can be traceable and that is confirmed by the feedback they get. Currently, Umutoniwabo is eyeing scaling even more, vertically and horizontally, in terms of expanding their value chain, venturing into more production and logistics, because what they do requires a lot of inputs being moved from one place to another. To the young girls out there, Umutoniwabo says the spirit of not giving up and working hard go hand-in-hand. Take every opportunity when it presents itself and keep learning. “Learning doesn't stop. You learn every day. Even me, I'm still learning,” she says, adding that the pressure that comes with age to achieve certain milestones at a certain age isn’t worth it, but rather the desire to set out to achieve something. She also urges young people to surround themselves with the right people – people who mentor them or add value to their lives, even including people one hangs out with. “Mentorship has changed my life, to be honest,” she says, adding that for girls, having women, who are mothers and have achieved things in entrepreneurship and are business leaders, has helped her to know how to navigate life as an entrepreneur.
