Applications open for female agtech startup challenge in East Africa

Gender in Agribusiness Investments in Africa (GAIA) has opened applications for its GAIA AgTech Innovation Challenge in East Africa, aimed at supporting female-run startups in the agriculture space.

Applications are now being accepted from institutions and enterprises until October 28, with winners to be notified on October 31.

GAIA is looking for entrepreneurs with successfully piloted ideas focusing on closing yield gaps in crop and livestock value chains, reducing post-harvest losses, and improving agri-market efficiencies.

“We are looking for institutions and business enterprises with innovations spanning the research-to-commercialization continuum, and those addressing business model reinvention,” GAIA said.

“Innovations should contribute towards transforming agricultural practices in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania for improved incomes and food security for smallholder farmers, especially women. The agtech innovations should demonstrate clear benefits to women smallholder farmers, and other women value chain actors. They should be scalable across multiple geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

GAIA is looking for enterprises that are women-led or have women managers, have a clear for-profit business model with high potential for scale, have some proof of concept on the ground, have conducted pilots and are preferably generating revenues.

The top 20 companies will participate in an in-depth boot camp, and then be showcased to investors, incubators, and other support organisations in Nairobi, Kenya in November.

“The goal of this challenge is to support promising women working in agriculture to refine their business model, and help connect them to additional key players in the agriculture sector,” GAIA said.

source Disrupt Africa