Ikenna Nzewi’s startup career has moved from improving agricultural processing to turning its leftovers into a climate technology business. The thread connecting those chapters is practical: understand what happens inside a factory, then build a business around a costly inefficiency.
Starting while still at university
Nzewi studied computer science at Yale University, graduating in 2017. He co-founded Releaf while still a student. His early professional experience also included Bain & Company, where he worked on commercial due diligence in the firm’s private equity practice.
Releaf, founded with Uzoma Ayogu, entered Y Combinator’s summer 2017 programme. The venture focused on the agricultural supply chain, developing a business around processing food ingredients in Nigeria. It was a setting where technology had to work with physical material, machinery and the economics of production.
The opportunity inside agricultural waste
Releaf Earth’s work later extended into biochar, a carbon-rich material made from biomass. Its Y Combinator profile describes using palm kernel shells as a feedstock. That shift connected the company’s processing experience with a different commercial opportunity: managing agricultural residues and supplying carbon removal.
The progression is significant because the original industry provided more than a customer list. It exposed the team to the supply of waste material and the operational demands of using it. A climate business built around those inputs still has to solve collection, processing and consistent plant operation.
Where Nzewi is now
By September 2026, Nzewi was leading Biochar Industrial Group, or BIG, alongside co-founders Ayogu and Isaiah Udotong. Condia reported that the startup had raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding led by BREEGA, with participation from The Catalyst Fund. Mulago Foundation also provided non-dilutive funding.
BIG’s Biochar-as-a-Service model works with agro-processing businesses to convert residues such as shells and husks into biochar and carbon removal credits. Its stated aim is to give processors an additional income stream while expanding carbon removal capacity.
For Nzewi, the latest chapter builds on years spent close to agricultural industry. His story shows how a founder’s next opportunity can emerge from materials and constraints encountered while building the first company.
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