We want Africa’s best young brains to share their answers with the rest of the world. Our young agritech entrepreneurs have the potential to transform how we approach food security issues and empower smallholder farmers throughout the continent.
Pitch AgriHack provides a forum for these forward-thinking individuals to exhibit their technological ideas to improve the continent’s agricultural sector. Pitch AgriHack 2023 will award the most innovative initiatives that address important concerns and promote sustainable agricultural development with a total prize money of $45,000.
The competition awards winners in three categories:
- Early-stage agritech ventures
- Mature or growth-stage agritech ventures
- Women-led agritech ventures
Prize:
Three winners and three runners-up will be selected, with each winner receiving a cash prize of US$10,000 and each runner-up receiving US$5,000.
Eligibility:
Candidates are early-, mature- or growth-stage, or women-led technology or digital services companies with innovative solutions impacting smallholder farmers at scale.
Applicants should have:
- A clear and defined description on how their solution is impacting smallholder farmers.
- Strong organizational and operational structure.
The applicant applying must:
- Be aged 18-40 on the day of submission to the 2023 Pitch AgriHack Competition.
- Hold nationality (with official ID) from any of the 54 nations of the African Union.
- Be the founder/co-founder of the enterprise represented in the competition and play an active role in its operations and leadership.
- Have no criminal record related to corruption, tax evasion, financial impropriety, felony or
other offenses. - Not be a previous Pitch AgriHack or GoGettaz finalist or winner.
- Submit the application form in English.
- Agree with the Terms & Conditions.
Early-stage category, venture must have:
- The ability to scale and impact a large number of smallholder farmers.
- An identifiable technological innovation that addresses the following problems for smallholder farmers:
- Smallholder farmer productivity
- Smallholder farmer income
- Labor intensiveness of operations
- Resilience
- Access to information for smallholder farmers
- Strong competitive advantage
Growth-stage category, venture must have:
- The ability to scale and impact a large number of smallholder farmers.
- Recorded evidence of demonstrated impact on smallholder farmers’ revenue.
- An identifiable technological innovation that addresses the following problems for smallholder farmers:
- Smallholder farmer productivity
- Smallholder farmer income
- Labor intensiveness of operations
- Resilience
- Access to information for smallholder farmers
- Strong competitive advantage
Selection criteria:
There will be a screening process to determine the top 12 start-ups, which will be invited to attend a pitch training session. Half of the selected start-ups will be women-owned start-ups (one official co-founder must be female). The selection is mainly based on the quality of the information submitted in the application. Additional information may be requested by the organizers.
Online screening criteria
- How real is the need?
- What problem does the solution solve?
- How unique is the solution?
- Does the team demonstrate an ability to execute?
- What is the market opportunity?
Technical assessment criteria
- Early-Stage Category:
- Scalability
- Feasibility/Proof of concept
- Technical viability of the solution
- Mature-Stage Category:
- Smallholder farmers reached
- Profitability
Final pitch criteria
- Impact on Smallholder Farmers
- Technological Innovation
- Business Model
- Team
- Scalability
- Use-of-funds
