Focusing on Agriculture and Technology, Crenov8 Consulting, a leading Management Consulting and Digital Firm in Dubai hosts the agribusiness gathering – Meet The Farmers’ Conference (MTFC), now in its third edition. As part of that initiative, we are also looking to support AgriTechnology Entrepreneurship in Africa with the Innov8Agric Challenge, which is looking to promote innovative ideas and enterprises that focus on agriculture and help them improve their business operations while providing a platform to showcase their innovation.
Innov8Agric is aimed at promoting innovative ideas for early stage Agric entrepreneurs from all sectors of the agriculture ecosystem who are applying creative and innovative methods to improve the agriculture value chain across Africa
This year, the pitch competition will hold in several African Countries and across 4 main regions
West Africa: Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon.
East Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda
South Africa: South Africa, Angola, and Congo
North Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
The regional finale will hold during the regional events across multiple cities with the grand finale holding during the Conference in Dubai on 27th & 28th November 2019.
Selected businesses will have the opportunity to exhibit and participate in the regional media events. Winners will emerge from each region and then go on an All-expense paid to Dubai to participate and exhibit in the MTFC grand finale and pitch for the top prize of 5000USD as well as follow-on funding and investment opportunities. They will also have access to a high worth pool of investors and potential customers at the conference.
In 2018, we received over a thousand applications from Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya and Ghana. The final event saw 4 regional winners pitch their ideas to a room full of investors in Dubai. The Startups that joined us in Dubai were Qualitrace, a traceability and anti-counterfeiting initiative; AgriQ & Automations, producers of automated solar-powered evaporative coolers; Spiderbit, a technology firm that designs and builds custom Agritech software solutions and SmartFarms, a smart commercial hub that makes farming accessible. At the end of an exciting pitch session, Modupe Oyetosho of SmartFarms emerged winner and went home with $5,000 funding and all other incentives that came with the Innov8Agric Prize.
Interested agripreneurs can apply for the 2019 edition via the application page. The selection team made up of successful entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders across Africa will select the best ideas based on innovation of the idea/enterprise, originality and viability of the idea/venture. The programme is open for idea/early stage Agritech start-ups (ventures). Deadline for the application is 30th June.
