The final of the FCMB Agritech Epic Pitch 2020 is here. Six agritech startups will pitch their innovative and scalable ideas for a chance to win cash prizes and support from FCMB and Passion Incubator.
The six finalists were chosen from a pool of 10 semifinalists including ColdHubs, Pricepally, Beat Drone, Solaristique Nigeria, Ecotutu, eVet Africa, Farmz2U, Tradebuza, AgroHive, and Farmspeak Technology.
The selection process by the bank’s Agric Desk lasted 2 days and saw the 10 startups pitch to an array of impressive judges, who not only selected the finalists but also provided valuable feedback and advice.
Meet the finalists:
- Farmz2U: helping farmers farm better with tailored agricultural expertise using data and market access via system integrations.
- Beat Drone: implements drone input on the farm production process such as spraying precise chemicals, crop health assessment, and farmland mapping.
- ColdHubs: designs, installs, commissions and operates 100% solar-powered walk-in cold rooms branded as “ColdHubs”, in markets and farm clusters. The Hubs are used by smallholder farmers, retailers and wholesalers, to store and preserve fresh fruits, vegetables, and other perishable foods 24/7, extending their shelf life from 2 days to 21 days.
- Tradebuza: digitizes commodities sourcing and trade for large agribusinesses who run out-grower schemes. We digitize their last-mile operations, including digitization of their smallholder and farmland profiles, farm activities, and post-harvest ops tracking.
- Farmspeak Technology: focuses on manufacturing IoT-powered hardware devices that work with web and mobile application using Artificial Intelligence(AI) to diagnose poultry diseases, monitor and regulate the poultry environment to help smallholder poultry farmer in Nigeria improve their farm management, reduce wastage and mortality, thereby increasing profitability in poultry farming.
- AgroHive: Africa’s first Agricultural HR startup deploying ICT in assisting over 1,000 agribusinesses tackle 1 of their biggest challenges, which is to have easy access to a consistent supply of skilled agricultural staff that will increase agribusiness productivity and profitability.
The finalists will pitch to Kudzai Gumunyu, Divisional Head, Agric Business at FCMB; Kola Masha, Managing Director at Babban Gona; Yemi Keri, Co-founder at Rising Tide Africa and Rishi Raithatha, Insights Manager, AgriTech Programme at GSMA for a chance to be among the winners.
The journey to the 3rd edition of the FCMB Agritech Epic Pitch 2020 started with a call for application back in May.
The application phase lasted 3 weeks and saw close to 2,000 Agritech startups from over 16 countries around the world apply, making it the largest number of applications received since the inception of the program.
So who will be crowned the winner of the FCMB Agritech Epic Pitch 2020? Stay with Techawk for updates.
