NEWS FEATURE
KIC has announced a call for applications for the 2024 AgriTech Challenge Pro program. Nominations are open till November 24th 2023.
The AgriTech Challenge Pro program is supported by the Mastercard Foundation, through the KIC and the Mastercard Foundation partnership launched to train the next generation of young leaders and entrepreneurs in Ghana’s agricultural sector.
The KIC Agritech Challenge Pro is a five- month accelerator program aiming to support young entrepreneurs to launch and grow commercially viable, scalable solutions to key problems in the agricultural sector.
The program aims to drive technology and innovation as a catalyst to enhancing productivity, improving yields, and creating more jobs within Ghana’s agricultural sector. Participants are drawn from the AgriTech Challenge Classic program and from a pool of existing start-ups who are ready to nurture their business for investor-readiness. At the end of the training, KIC and its partners award some selected businesses with up to USD50,000 seed funding.
Past winners from the competition share their valuable experience gained through the capacity building and coaching received from the training. Speaking about impact of joining the KIC program, Caroline Amanor, co-founder and CEO of Maku Foods, a KIC supported business, mentioned that KIC’s AgriTech Challenge Pro had led to the growth of her business, citing the insights from the trainings, coaching and skills acquired by being part of the programme.
“We started very small. We were introduced to the KIC program, and since we joined we have learnt a lot. We were part of the winners for the 2022 AgriTech Challenge Pro competition and through the seed funding we received, we have been able to invest in building the business and purchasing more equipment for processing our ingredients into ready- to cook condiments and spices.
KIC helped position our business for growth and investor readiness,” she said.
Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) is committed to empowering young people to find innovative and entrepreneurship opportunities within the agricultural value chain. For the 2023 AgriTech Pro, KIC awarded $350000 worth of seed funding to 11 startups.
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About Kosmos Innovation Center: The Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) invests in young entrepreneurs and small businesses who have big ideas and want to see their country grow. The KIC was established in Ghana in 2016 with programs focused on inspiring and empowering young entrepreneurs to drive change in their own country. Since its inception, the KIC has focused on innovation in agriculture – the country’s most important sector and largest employer.
More than 1300 aspiring entrepreneurs have participated in KIC Ghana programs, resulting in the creation of promising startups that have gone on to secure seed funding, additional business training, and capital investment.
About Mastercard Foundation: The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organizations to enable young people in Africa and in Indigenous communities in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work.
It is one of the largest private foundations in the world with a mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. It was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company.
The Foundation is an independent organization, and its policies, operations, and program decisions are determined by its own Board of Directors and senior leadership team. It is a registered Canadian charity with offices in Toronto, Kigali,
Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Dakar, and Addis Ababa. For more information on the Foundation, please visit: www.mastercardfdn.org.
About Mastercard Foundation and KIC Partnership: Mastercard Foundation and KIC announced the launch of a multi-year partnership to train the next generation of young leaders and entrepreneurs in Ghana’s agriculture sector in May 2022.
Other key aspects of the partnership include the AgriTech Challenge Classic, AgriTech Challenge Pro, the KIC Incubation, Business Booster, and the Blue Skies Foundation School Farm Competition.
About AgriTech Challenge Pro: The KIC AgriTech Challenge Pro is an acceleration program aimed at equipping existing early-stage teams or AgriTech startups with the right tools, funding, and support to bring their business ideas or products to market and prepare them to scale.
The program was developed to create opportunities for teams that are already formed and looking to take their business to the next stage. KIC AgriTech Challenge Pro takes an inclusive approach, offering its services to all agricultural business teams in accordance with KIC’s goal of developing talent and advancing innovation in Ghana.
Media contacts:
mediarelations@kicghana.org
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