Two Nigerians win Cambridge’s grant, develop medtech app for diabetic retinopathy

Two Nigerians—Muhammed Alakitan and Rodiyah Oluwa—have won the third-place prize of £5,000 (estimated at N9m at the current exchange rate) grant at the 2026 Entrepreneurship Prize organised by the University of Cambridge King’s College. NigerianEntrepreneur Support

The grant is offered as seed funding to support the startup’s research and development.

The duo founded a medtech called OpthaDetect. This B2B2C start-up builds on deep learning-powered software that provides faster results for diabetic retinopathy testing.

Focusing on Africa, including Nigeria and Kenya, the startup builds on research seeking to understand the role of large visual models in increasing access to healthcare for people living with diabetic retinopathy in low-resource settings.

OpthaDetect targets providing ophthalmologists and clinicians with a much-needed tool to assess the severity and presence of eye disorders in diabetic patients.

While the official prize-giving ceremony is slated for Wednesday, 30th of September 2026, the College has announced the winners and the grant on its website.

One of the co-founders, Rodiyah Oluwa, said: “I’m very happy to have received this award from the King’s College Cambridge Entrepreneurship Prize Scheme, a program that was extremely competitive with various amazing projects.

“As someone who comes from a family of healthcare practitioners and who has been working in the healthcare tech space for about 3 years now, it feels amazing to be able to give back to the African community in a way that helps to improve our healthcare.”

Rodiyah further highlights her hopes for the startup: “I hope this recognition brings more attention to the urgent need for accessible diabetic retinopathy screening across Africa, and I’m excited for what this means for OpthaDetect as we continue building solutions that put early detection within reach of the communities that need it most.”

The Entrepreneurship Prize competition was established in 2014 with a gift from Stuart Lyons CBE, who matriculated in the College in 1962.

The grants are offered to selected winners each year after finalists present their full business plans to an expert panel at the ‘Lyons Den’.

For OpthaDetect, the prize also includes mentorship from a top UK investment firm.