Four early stage and four advanced start-ups have emerged winner at the 2018 AgriHack Pitch.
The early stage start-ups are those just launching while the advanced stage were judged on a criteria list that included the problem(s) addressed, unique value proposition, market addressed, current market traction and revenues.
Pitch AgriHack is part of the AgriHack Talent initiative of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and aims at accelerating e-agriculture entrepreneurship for improved livelihoods in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions.
The early stage category winners include; Illuminum Greenhouses Kenya, Kenya; Fenou Packaging, Benin; Develop Digitally, Jamaica; Farmignite Company, Nigeria and they were awarded with a cash price between €5000 and €7500.
And for the advanced category were; CowTribe Africa, Ghana; Agro Innova, Ghana; Ankora Global Services, Nigeria; CLIN SARLU (e-agribusines), Togo and they received fund between €12000 and €15000. However, a special prize was offered to the best Francophone start-up led by a woman; Fenou Packaging which is based in Benin won.
The winning start-ups received the awards in presence of African leaders; H.E. Paul Kagame, President, Republic of Rwanda; H.E. William Samoei Arap Ruto, Deputy President of Kenya; H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President, Republic of Ghana; H.E. Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet, Prime Minister, Republic of Gabon.
26 startups, 14 of which are women-led, from 9 countries were selected out of 325 young AgriTech start-ups that applied.
While commenting, CTA director, Michael Hailu said “These are entrepreneurs who have been inspired to make a difference – to help transform agriculture for future generations and to encourage young people to see the potential in farming and agribusiness. They are showing a pathway to enable the modernisation of agriculture. They are shining a light on the hope that will greatly improve rural lives and make agriculture attractive and profitable to youth who are too often migrating to cities in search of better opportunities.”
2018 Pitch AgriHack is organised with the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Suguba Africa. Other collaborators include Women in Tech Africa and Wennovation Hub.
At least, 1 million farmers and agricultural stakeholders have been reached by services provided through the use of applications developed in the process since the launch of CTA’s AgriHack Talent Initiative.
Start-ups, mostly information and communications technologies (ICT) based innovations, have raised more than two million Euros from other investors and partners.