Founder: Headboy Industries

According to the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, an elite band of business hotshots with a combined annual revenue of over $130-billion, Ludwick Marishane is the best student entrepreneur in the world. But don’t take their word for it. Marishane began starting businesses as a teenager in Limpopo. Many failed, like his own brand of biodiesel, healthy cigarettes and a security magazine. Others, like DryBath, hit the mark. He is currently negotiating the sale of this bath-substitution technology with several interested multinationals. Now in his final year of business science at the University of Cape Town, Marishane has already done an internship with Goldman Sachs, operates as campus ambassador for Google, and in 2010 became the first African to reach the finals of the Singapore University Global Business Plan competition. After graduation, this 22-year-old plans to establish a Cape Town headquarters for his company, Headboy Industries, and take it global in the next two years.

— Ian Macleod

Twitter: @Theheadboy