Pitch AgriHack 2019 winners awarded a total of €60k in prizes

Seven startup that came out tops at the Pitch AgriHack 2019 competition earlier this month have been awarded a total of €60 000 in prizes.

Pitch AgriHack aims to support the growth of business services offered by agritech startups as well as contribute to accelerate the adoption of innovations that bring about stronger productivity within the agrifood sector.

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The competition is run by The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), the OCP Group, GreenTec Capital Africa Foundation, GreenTec Capital Africa,World Bank, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The seven Pitch AgriHack winners hail from Ghana, Kenya Uganda, and Nigeria

In a statement earlier this month, CTA said it had selected 22 finalists (see profiles of them in this PDF) — 11 of which were women led — from among 326 startups that had applied.

Discover the companies & services offered by the 22 finalist #startups who successfully pitched at #AGRF2019 in Accra.

44% offer services for #livestock, 49% #advisoryservices and 35% market linkage services. Check this brochurehttps://t.co/XWSVpnSGMu #PitchAgriHack pic.twitter.com/31n95KkyHI

— CTA (@CTAflash) September 12, 2019

The finalists underwent training in a bootcamp that was held before pitching their solutions to potential investors and a judging panel at the closing plenary of the African Green Revolution Forum that was held in Accra on 6 September.

This year’s winners hail from Ghana, Kenya Uganda, and Nigeria. They are:

Early-stage startups category:

• Profish (Ghana): Profish was awarded €7500 for its Lojaanor USSD platform which enables the startup to provide logistical services and market access to fish farmers.
• Savanna Circuit Tech (Kenya): Savanna Circuit was awarded €5000 for its Maziwaplus Prechiller and M+ Milk Collection App.

Mature stage startup category:

• Jaguza Tech (Uganda): Jaguza is an online and offline, cloud-based livestock management system that incorporates the use of low-cost sensors, drones, livestock collars and GPS trackers to gather real-time information about location, speed, body temperature and stress levels of livestock. The solution was awarded €15 000.
• Arinifu Technologies (Kenya): Arinifu Technologies has developed a smart brooder environmental control device which helps chicken farmers regulate temperature and humidity. The solution was awarded €12 500.

Public Choice Award:

• Trackball Global Technologies (Nigeria): Trackball Global Technologies is developing AgriCo, a web-based mobile application that will help improve the productivity and profitability of urban farming by providing farmers with best production practices, farm management tools, access to inputs, produce markets and micro-credits. The startup was awarded a Public Choice Award of €5000 for the solution.

Data Analytics Award:

• Foodlocker Limited (Nigeria): Foodlocker offers procurement efficiency, convenience, affordability, and pricing regularity to large buyers of farm-fresh foodstuff by aggregating and lightly processing smallholder farmer outputs and delivering those outputs directly to our customers, who include food processors, exporters, hotels, restaurants, bars, and retailers. The startup received the Data Analytics Award of €10 000.

GreenTec Award

• TechShelta (Ghana): TechShelta’s web and mobile app enables greenhouse farmers to have on-demand access to advisory information, automation services and market linkages. The startup was the recipient of the GreenTech Award of €5000.

CTA said since the launch of the AgriHack Talent initiative in 2013, the services of entrants have reached over one million farmers and agricultural stakeholders, with participants having raised over €2-million from investors and partners.

CTA director Michael Hailu said in the same statement that through the Pitch AgriHack competition, the centre has discovered “self-taught youngsters” who are full of ideas and determination, which he said are providing answers to some of Africa’s persistent challenges.

Read more: Pitch AgriHack 2019 winners to be awarded funding of up to €15 000

Featured image: The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA)