After completing their A-levels, a large number of young Africans aspire to attend esteemed international colleges. The Mapwess platform created by Tsanta Rakotoarimanga makes the process easier by putting them in touch with knowledgeable mentors.
The CEO and creator of the Mapwess digital platform headquartered in Madagascar, which makes it easier for students to apply to overseas universities, is Tsanta Rakotoarimanga. He graduated from the Université des Mascareignes in the Republic of Mauritius in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in finance, and from Université Paris-Saclay in 2023 with a master’s degree in strategy and international management.
In 2020, he founded Mapwess to assist African and Madagascarian students who want to attend prestigious colleges. Through a portal the firm has created, they can be connected to mentors who will assist them with orientation, enrollment, and settlement in the nation of their choice. Tsanta Rakotoarimanga hopes that his approach will enable 10,000 kids to fulfil their dream of studying overseas.
“The idea came to us when we were still in Mauritius. We based it mainly on our personal experiences. We really struggled to prepare for our departure abroad. And even when we got there, it wasn’t at all easy to adapt. We would have liked someone to tell us what to do, where to go and who to talk to. And that’s what we’d like to bring to Madagascan youth,” he declared in 2020.
Prior to establishing his platform, Tsanta Rakotoarimanga established Dream Studio Agency in 2019 to assist young Africans in securing placements at recognised universities across the globe.
However, Tsanta Rakotoarimanga has found that being an entrepreneur in Madagascar has not been easy. She has had to cope with investors’ and financial institutions’ lack of faith. However, according to We Are Tech Africa, he has been able to rely on the assistance of start-up incubators like Orange Fab Madagascar in 2020 and Zafy Tody in 2021.
The young businessman took home the third national prize in the 2020 ‘Prix Orange de l’Entrepreneur Social en Afrique et au Moyen-Orient’ (POESAM) with Mapwess. In 2021, he was also chosen as one of the top young entrepreneurs in Africa for the Anzisha Prize, which gave him access to mentorship, coaching, and training.
He was chosen to represent Madagascar in the Southern African YALI (Young African Leaders Initiative) programme in 2023.