Kenya’s Keep IT Cool and Ghana’s GAYO Win Earthshot Prize Securing USD 1.21 M

Kenya’s Keep IT Cool and Ghana’s Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) are among the five winners of The Earthshot Prize. Each received £1 million (USD 1.21 M) to support their African environmental projects. The Earthshot Prize also provides winners tailored support to help develop and scale their initiatives.

Founded in 2014, GAYO is a youth-led, gender-balanced nonprofit organization in Ghana focused on environmental protection, climate change awareness, and youth empowerment. GAYO aims to foster sustainable human-nature relationships and promote ecological balance.

Kenyan startup Keep IT Cool, launched in 2019 with Google’s support, delivers a smart cold-chain distribution platform that provides proximity-based cold storage for underserved fisherfolk and traders in East Africa. By reducing post-harvest losses and improving market access, the platform enhances the supply chain, allowing small-scale farmers to bypass intermediaries and sell directly to consumers, achieving a 98% efficiency improvement.