Accra, Ghana, November 16, 2020 – Following a four-phase rigorous and competitive selection process, 10 dynamic and innovative Agritech startups have been selected to partake in the Agritech Investment Readiness Accelerator Program. The program is being hosted by Innohub in partnership with the Tech Entrepreneurship Initiative, ‘Make-IT in Africa’, (implemented by Deutsche für Gesellschaft Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Wangara Green Ventures, ABSA Bank Plc and Accra Angels Network.
Many startups appear to have strong growth potential but will inevitably reach a point where future growth requires external funding. A great fraction of these startups are unable to raise money from investors because they are not investor ready and lack the capacity to appeal to investors.
The selected Agribusiness will be taken through a structured 8-week Accelerator program and work closely with experienced technical Business Coaches to help the Agribusinesses to be investor ready. The accelerator will help assess the maturity level of startups, as well as evaluate and increase their investment attractiveness. Each startup will also be supported logistically with a laptop as well as licence to a globally used platform that supports them to build their investment case.
These start-ups are currently leveraging the use of technology to augment their business operations and models to help address everyday problems in Agriculture. These are everyday challenges, including Manufacturing, Crop Farming, Farm Machinery, Food Production, Pesticides, Mapping, Marketing and PR. They will also be given a one-year post acceleration capital raise and coaching support.
The program will use the blended learning approach with a focus on providing participating agribusinesses with the support to meet three clear fundamentals; Strategize to assess their investment readiness and define their investment ask; Target the kind of capital and investors suited to each unique venture; and cultivating investor relationships and agreeing on deal terms that matter.
The participating startups in this edition include the following;
AB Precision Solutions: provides precision agricultural solutions to farmers as a service, including the deployment of drones. This is to improve yields and reduce post-harvest losses.
AF Map Works: uses GIS software such as ArcGIS, ERDAS, and Global Mapper for data analysis mainly rainfall or temperatures for a designated location to build up geographic maps indicating the changes in vegetation and weather condition in a certain period of time.
Agro Innova: does research to identify challenges faced by smallholder farmers in Ghana and develops farmer-centred innovation solutions which can easily be adopted by these farmers.
AIScarecrow: helps cereal farmers successfully ward off pest birds, cutting their losses to these birds by 90-95% and saving 8-10 hours of their time.
Agro Kings: is focused on agro-processing, farming, and agri-tech. With the vision to feed the future, empower smallholder farmers and innovate using technology, they produce Ghana’s premium rice brand, Nana’s Rice.
Commodity Network: Utilizes proprietary software app, to collect, maintain, and analyze smallholder farmers online/offline profiles, generating data to support innovative farm solution distribution, whilst enabling rural smallholder farmers’ convenient and cost-effective access to modern farm inputs and farm management technologies, as well as market.
Eazz Foods: is set out to dry eggs to make it easier to use, easier to tansport and best for industrial purpose.
Grow for Me: is a web and mobile based Agricultural crowdfunding and crowd farming platform, that sponsors farmers in growing more crops to solve hunger problems in Africa.
SAYeTECH: combines the advantages of IoT and Artificial Intelligence with robust hardware, ideally suited for smallholder farms in Africa. They design, manufacture, provide maintenance and training, and empower farmers with data that help increase their efficiency.
WamiAgro: offers input supply in the form of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. Also, in collaboration with our partners, they offer smallholder farmers mechanization services on credit.
PARTNERS
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