SAIS Female Founder Award 2025 offers €52,000 to African women in the greentech sector
Applications are now open for the SAIS Female Founder Award 2025 for forward-thinking African women entrepreneurs leading groundbreaking ventures in Foodtech, Climatetech, or Agritech. The awards honour female visionaries who have made a positive social impact in their chosen areas and inspired other women to start and expand their businesses, empowering communities across Africa.
Scaling digital Agricultural innovation through Start-ups (SAIS) is a project carried out by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which is the organisation behind the SAIS Female Founder Award.
Since its inception, 65% of the startups have raised $40 million in funding after enrolling for the programme. They also have 520k users, of whom over 95% of the startups are still actively participating in the market.
SAIS has collaborated with over 85 startups from more than 21 African countries to date. A total of over $55 million in follow-on funding, mostly in the form of debt and equity funding, was raised by about 70% of the startups. Overall, the startups they collaborated with served over 1.7 million customers and more than 75% of them reported higher revenue as a result of utilising the innovation the startups provided.
Benefits
The benefits of the programme are:
- Voucher for specialised costs, such as software licenses, online instruction, and other services
- Tailored coaching session with regional and international experts aligned with specific needs, including pitching to boost exposure, marketing, and investor relations
- Facilitation of significant connections to support the business growth and possible expansion through the integration of the local ecosystem
- Trip to Nairobi, including an economy class flight to attend the AfricArena Summit
- Introduction and participation in the SAIS Female Leader Circle – a community, that offers peer-to-peer interaction and monthly expert sessions
- SAIS Female Founder Award certificate and a seal to identify your company on your website
The three winners of the SAIS Female Founder Award 2025 will receive €30,000, €15,000, and €7,000 in in-kind funding.
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Who can apply
To be eligible for the SAIS Female Founder Award 2025, participants must:
- Demonstrate visionary leadership in helping other female executives, empowering women economically, and cultivating a diverse culture
- Be an African woman with technical expertise who co-founded and manages a growth-stage startup
- Have a minimum of three full-time employees, including the founder
- Offer Agritech, Foodtech, or Climatetech services in Africa
- Have an officially registered company and be operating in any part of the African continent
- Must have been registered for at least two years and provide definite proof of traction, such as a customer base and revenue
- Have a unique value proposition in the markets in which they operate, as well as a credible business plan that targets a specific segment
How to apply
Interested participants can apply for the SAIS Female Founder Award 2025 through the official SAIS application website on or before Monday, May 12, 2025.
Do you have an innovative business (small, mid-scale business or startup) that adds value, creates opportunities or solves bold problems? Then you`ve got a story worth telling? Shoot us an email with SUBJECT “Story Worth Telling (+Name of Business)” to [email protected]
