LACOM Consults Limited, a language and business support firm co-founded by two MUST graduates, was among startups that participated at the MUST Cultural and Research Innovation Festival held at Ndata in Thyolo.

Founded by Jonathan Phiri and Shadrek Mweso, who both graduated with distinctions in Language, Communication and Culture in 2025, LACOM Consults is based in Chigumula, Blantyre.

"We provide a range of language and business support services, including translation, transcription, localization, interpretation, data annotation, Linguistic Quality Assurance (LQA) for Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE), copywriting, document reviewing and editing, as well as marketing strategy development for SMEs," said the company's marketing and public relations officer Norah Chise in an interview.

"Despite being based in Blantyre, we provide our services across the country and in all major Malawian languages, as well as English, Chinese and French."

During the festival, the firm was awarded Best Start-up in the Creative Arts and Communication Category, which was presented by MUST Vice-Chancellor, Associate Professor Mwapatsa Mipando.

Chise, herself a 2026 Language, Communication and Culture graduate from  MUST, expressed gratitude to the university for providing them a platform.

"We are really grateful to MUST for organising such an event. It not only provided us with a valuable platform to showcase our services to potential clients and partners, but also exposed us to an array of cultural experiences, research and innovations that we had never experienced before,” she said.

Chise further disclosed that LACOM Consults is able to secure business opportunities both locally and internationally, attributing the growth partly to the exposure and networking opportunities created through such platforms.

Being MUST alumni, she said this demonstrates the university’s contribution to nurturing graduates who are capable of creating opportunities, developing innovative solutions and competing in an increasingly globalised marketplace.