Skip to main content
BeaCoPure

Our story

We are BeaCoPure, a Ghanaian coconut oil producer. We press our oil in the Volta Region, where the coconuts grow, and we turn it into products that run from cooking oil to hair care. We also supply coconut oil in bulk. We built this company so that more of the coconut's value stays with the communities that raise it.

It starts in the Volta Region

Erica Eyram Konu comes from the Volta Region. Her route ran through the Mastercard Foundation Scholars network, and it led back home: to coconuts, to a press, and to the single mothers and young people she wanted working beside her. BeaCoPure processes raw coconuts into coconut oil, traditional coconut oil for cooking, a hair growth oil, and a hair and scalp conditioner, and it trains women and youth in rural communities in coconut oil production and in communication.

When we started

We started in December 2024, very small. In 2026 the business was registered in Canada and in Ghana.

BeaCoPure bottles and jars on an exhibition stand branded for the company.

The Dobson Cup

In 2026 we stood on the stage of the McGill Dobson Cup, McGill University's startup competition, in a field of 64 startups. We took first place in the Social Impact Enterprise Track and won the National Bank of Canada Award for that track. We are proud of the prize. We are prouder of what it recognized: a business that makes something real, in a place that rarely gets to keep the value of what it grows.

The award cheque is dated 5 May 2026. It is made out to BeaCoPure for 20,000 dollars, for the 2026 Dobson Cup, Social Impact.

A National Bank cheque for 20,000 dollars, dated 5 May 2026, payable to BeaCoPure for the 2026 Dobson Cup Social Impact track.

Hear the pitch in our founder's own voice.

The Hult Prize Canada Nationals

In 2026 we were selected to compete at the Hult Prize Canada Nationals. That is the national stage of the Hult Prize, held in Montreal on 10 and 11 April and hosted by the McGill Dobson Centre. Twenty-eight teams from across Canada pitched there. We did not win the global prize. Canada Nationals is the competition you reach after a campus or open qualifier, and it sits before the later global rounds.

BeaCoPure on a Hult Prize stage, with the line: We are going to the 2026 Hult Prize Canada Nationals.

The Hult Prize is a global competition for student-led businesses that have to make money and do social good at the same time. Each venture must line up with at least one United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, and it must hold people, planet, and profit together. The 2026 cycle drew 18,000 registered startups. About 2,000 reached a national competition, across 45 host institutions. From there, about 80 teams go on to a digital incubator, 20 to a global accelerator in the United Kingdom, and eight to the global final. The winning team of that final receives 1 million US dollars in seed funding.

For a press in the Volta Region, that stage is a test of the product, not a new claim about the oil. The thing being judged is a business that already exists: coconuts processed at home into cooking oil, into hair care, and into bulk supply, with single mothers and young people trained beside the press. A prize built on people, planet, and profit is looking for exactly that shape of company. Local processing keeps more of the coconut's value in the community that grew it. The hair products and the bulk orders are how the press earns. The training is how the impact stays after the pitch is over.

Reaching Canada Nationals does not mean the oil is certified, and it does not mean we received the million dollars. It means the work in the Volta Region was judged worth a national pitch, in a field that started with 18,000 startups.

The company we keep

BeaCoPure is supported by the Mastercard Foundation FAST program, the Fund for Alumni Start-ups in Transition, which backs ventures founded by alumni of Mastercard Foundation programs with enterprise support, business development training, and mentorship. We are also a supported SME within the Nkabom Collaborative, a ten year partnership between McGill University, the Mastercard Foundation, six Ghanaian universities, and the Association of Ghana Industries, built around Ghana's agri-food sector. Nkabom means togetherness in Akan. That is the company we keep, and it keeps us honest.

The team

I am Erica Eyram Konu, and I founded BeaCoPure in December 2024. I come from Ghana's Volta Region, where coconuts grow around the communities I know and love. My journey took me through the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and eventually back home, where I wanted to create opportunities for the women and young people around me to keep more of the value from what already grows here.

I started BeaCoPure when it was still very small, with a simple idea: to turn a familiar local resource into quality products while creating meaningful opportunities in rural communities. Today, we process raw coconuts into coconut oil, traditional coconut oil for cooking, hair growth oil, and hair and scalp conditioner, while also supplying oil in bulk to other businesses. We train single mothers and young people in coconut oil production and communication.

As the vision grew, Justina Achiaa Bonsu, Gideon Aggrey, and Ray Johnson Adomako joined me as co-founders. All three are Mastercard Foundation Scholars at McGill University.

Justina leads marketing and sales, bringing her interest in entrepreneurship and experience in communication to how we position BeaCoPure and reach customers.

Gideon leads quality assurance, drawing on his experience as a founder and his work in communication, coaching, and community engagement to help strengthen our production and quality systems.

Ray leads finance, strategy, and impact, helping us manage our resources, plan our growth, and measure the value we create for the communities we work with.

In 2026, we registered BeaCoPure in both Ghana and Canada, and the Dobson Cup put the work we had been building on a larger stage. But for me, BeaCoPure is still about something simple: the press, the people beside it, and the value that stays in the Volta Region.

Read how we make our oil or meet the products it becomes.