Noreen Mwancha

Noreen Mwancha is one of the four student founders of Rethread Africa, a Nairobi materials startup that turns agricultural waste into biodegradable textiles. She joined the venture while studying economics at Kenyatta University, and the company's startup listing on HANGA names her as its product development lead.

Rethread's idea is simple to explain and hard to execute: farm residues that are usually burned or left to rot become fibre for fashion. The team settled on pineapple leaves because, unlike corn or sugarcane waste, they had no existing market, and developed a chemical-free extraction process in which water returns to the land, pulp goes to compost and the fibres are spun and woven into fabric designed to break down at the end of its life. The company has also explored sugarcane bagasse and microbe-based bioplastics, and aims to replace a share of the polyester used in fashion.

The work has drawn international recognition. Rethread was among the winners of the Make It Circular Challenge run by What Design Can Do and the IKEA Foundation, and one of ten winners of the H&M Foundation's Global Change Award in 2023. In 2024 it won the University Innovation Challenge hosted by Junior Achievement Kenya and NCBA Bank, earning the right to represent Kenya at the GEC+ Africa competition of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Cape Town.