Are you an entrepreneur who is specialized in Agriculture or have interest in Agribusiness?
Then, this might just be the funding opportunity you have been waiting for.
Table of Contents
Overview of Village Capital Programs
Village Capital’s programs create a global community of entrepreneurs and their supporters, solving global problems.
Village Capital’s team works across three continents to support entrepreneurs, with their headquarters in Washington, DC, and offices in San Francisco, Mexico City, Nairobi, and Bangalore.
their process for selecting, training and funding entrepreneurs starts with identifying a problem to be solved – and ends with a unique peer-review model for investing in the best solution.
Overview of the Agriculture Sector
Improved innovations in both food and agriculture is certain to afford a healthier population today, and improve the environment for current and future generations.
Rural development, sustainable production, efficient distribution and accessible, affordable healthy food are all ambitious opportunities for all existing and aspiring entrepreneurs.
To this end, Village Capital works with entrepreneurs from across the value chain that provides technologies and services.
This will cater for a more inclusive and sustainable food and agriculture system.
Overview of Sub-Sahara Africa
The African continent is on the move. Africa is urbanizing, with 50% of Africans projected to live in cities by 2030.
The continent will be unduly affected by the effects of climate change. this will result in an unprecedented challenge(s) of drought, disease, and food insecurity.
And individuals, empowered through access to healthcare, education, and technology, are demanding government transparency like never before.
African entrepreneurs have the opportunity to leverage these trends to solve major challenges across the continent.
Grant Program Overview
Various African governments have put in place several initiatives to provide support to agriculture such as the Maputo Declaration, the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and agreeing to Africa’s Agenda 2063.
While the benevolence of such initiatives cannot go unnoticed, it is recorded that there are all high-level solutions and there is still a need for granular solutions for small-scale farmers.
At Village Capital, they believe that agriculture entrepreneurs have what it takes to address these gaps.
Innovators have the potential to raise productivity for small farmers and food security, improve and secure the value chain, and strengthen links to markets, all while generating job growth and local economic development.
Village Capital is launching its Africa Agriculture 2019 program with the support of Ceniarth and Small Foundation.
Village Capital welcomes ventures meeting any of the following criteria listed below to apply for the Africa Agriculture 2019 program by June 28, 2019.
- Women and youth-led enterprises,
- Enterprises that solve agri-value chain problems end-to-end (or come close),
- Enterprises that employ technology in delivering products and/or services,
- Ventures that work across multiple commodities,
- Companies that leverage social networks in delivering their product and services,
- Urban agriculture, aquaculture, and hardware businesses,
Ventures operating in all countries in Africa are welcome to apply.
What does the program have to offer?
- Support through peer due diligence and constructive feedback
The program will select a cohort of 12 ventures, who will then participate in three 3 -day workshops that will take place between October 2019 and December 2019.
Our award-winning curriculum encourages deep collaboration within the cohort and helps entrepreneurs explore and leverage business synergies among themselves.
2. Interactions with mentors, customers, and strategic partners
Early-stage startups need validation from customers as well as relationships with key partners in order to tailor solutions as they scale. We will streamline this process, helping startups connect and interact with:
- Leading investors, entrepreneurs, and other sector experts who will offer mentorship during workshops;
- Potential customers, partners, and other industry stakeholders, who will participate in business development sessions at the workshops;
The program will culminate in curated investor meetings with investors from our network for all companies in the cohort.
Eligibility criteria –
- At least one full-time team member based in the country of operation
- A minimum viable product
- Meaningful customer or business validation (not limited to revenue, can also be successful pilot studies, number of users, and/or strategic partnerships)
Applications open – June 3, 2019
Applications close – June 28 2019
Workshop 1 – October 8-11, 2019
Workshop 2 – December 3-6, 2019
Workshop 3 – January 14-17, 2020
Selected startups are required to have at least one C-level team member attend all three workshops, and Village Capital will bear flight and lodging costs for a team member to attend.
For more information about the program, and how to apply kindly click here
This Opportunity was extracted from Village Capital Website
