Diana Orembe is one of Africa’s rising biotech entrepreneurs, transforming food waste into sustainable fish feed while solving one of the aquaculture industry’s biggest challenges.
As the Co-founder and CEO of NovFeed, she has built a climate-smart agribusiness that is now impacting thousands of fish farmers across Tanzania and beyond.
Her journey to becoming the winner of the prestigious Africa’s Business Heroes Grand Prize was not overnight. It was built through resilience, scientific innovation, and persistence.
Growing up near Lake Victoria, Diana witnessed firsthand the struggles fish farmers faced, especially the high cost and shortage of fish feed. Her uncle, who operated a small fish farm, constantly struggled to access affordable feed, a challenge that would later inspire her entrepreneurial vision.
While studying microbiology at the University of Dar es Salaam, Diana researched Tanzania’s aquaculture sector and discovered that many farmers were still battling the same problems years later. Imported fish feed remained expensive, making fish farming difficult for small-scale producers.
Determined to create a local solution, she began experimenting in university laboratories, researching how organic market waste could be converted into affordable, high-protein fish feed through microbial fermentation. In 2020, she officially launched NovFeed.
Today, NovFeed transforms discarded fruits and vegetables into sustainable fish feed and organic bio-fertilizers. The company’s innovative technology significantly reduces reliance on imported fishmeal while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Under Diana’s leadership, the startup has upcycled hundreds of tonnes of waste and served more than 2,000 farmers across Tanzania.
One of NovFeed’s biggest achievements has been reducing aquaculture production costs for farmers by nearly 40%, helping improve profitability for local fish producers. The company’s products are now distributed through agro-dealer networks and demonstration farms that help educate farmers on modern fish farming practices.
Diana’s entrepreneurial journey, however, was not without setbacks. Her first application to Africa’s Business Heroes did not succeed. Instead of giving up, she treated the rejection as a learning experience. She refined her business model, strengthened her operations, improved her storytelling, and reapplied with a stronger strategy.That persistence paid off.
Out of more than 32,000 applicants from across Africa, Diana emerged as the winner of the 2025 Africa’s Business Heroes Grand Prize, earning $300,000 in funding. The recognition placed her among the continent’s most promising entrepreneurs and highlighted NovFeed as a leading innovation in sustainable food systems and climate-smart agriculture.
The prize became a turning point for the company. With the funding, NovFeed expanded its production capacity from a small factory producing 30 tonnes monthly to a larger facility capable of producing more than 20 tonnes of fish feed daily. The company is also planning regional expansion into Kenya and Uganda while growing its network of service providers.
Beyond the funding, the Africa’s Business Heroes platform gave Diana global visibility, mentorship opportunities, and access to a powerful network of investors and entrepreneurs. Her story has since become an inspiration for many young African innovators, especially women in science and agribusiness.
Despite her success, Diana continues to speak honestly about entrepreneurship. She often emphasizes that every business is difficult, regardless of size, and believes success comes from persistence, learning, and the ability to keep selling and improving.
Her journey from a microbiology student researching fish farming challenges to becoming one of Africa’s most celebrated entrepreneurs shows how local problems can become scalable businesses with global impact when innovation meets determination.
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