At the recently concluded Seedstars Global Competition 2018, held at Lausanne, Switzerland, AgroCenta, a Ghanaian startup emerged winner of $500,000 equity-investment among 12 finalists.
AgroCenta is an online platform that connects smallholder farmers to a wider market thereby reducing the post-harvest wastage which is about 40% in Africa. The startup also partners with truck hire services to distribute these farm produce hence, solving distribution challenges along the agriculture value chain.
The startup is helping smallholder farmers get access to credits by documenting all transactions via its AgroPay platform. This record which shows volume of trade and payment history serves as proof to financial institutions which are concerned about financial records of these smallholder farmers before they can access loans to expand their business.
In Africa, the yield per land is very low as a result of inadequate agricultural extension initiatives. With AgroCenta, farmers can get reliable information such as weather forecast, preventive measures etc via interactive voice in their local languages on their mobile phones. This service helps farmers in their decision-making process ensuring they take the best available option based on real-time data giving them the best yield.
GiftedMom, a Cameroon Startup, a mobile-based solutions for maternal engagement was listed among the final 11 startups for the SeedStar Global Competition. A Kenyan Startup, SolarFreeze that has developed solar-powered cold storage units for smallholder farmers won the $50,000 ENEL Africa Energy prize. Edves, a Nigerian Startup that helps schools share education materials with learners and for parents to make payment to schools won the transforming education prize while the Merck health tech prize was won by a South African startup EMGuidance that aggregates medical contents for professionals in one app.
Since its inception in 2013, the Seedstars world is a global competition for startups with a vision to affect the lives of people in emerging markets across the world.
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