AgriCatalyst Innovations Launches the ‘African Women in Agri-foodtech Program’ to Support Female Founders
In Africa, female founded businesses are more prone to failure than male founded businesses. This is evident in the gross revenue, profit, growth, funding and failure gaps existing amongst male and female founders. It is of great importance to know that only less than 10% of female founded businesses thrive or become established after 3 years of launch.
When it comes to the agricultural industry, the gap becomes really wider. The disparity amongst male and female founders in funding, access to resources such as skilled staff and tools for business development, market reach, training, scaling and favourable policies is quite disheartening. According to the FAO, out of 43% of the African Agricultural labour force, 79% are women who solely depend on agriculture as their primary source of income. With, only a few women out of the estimated 79% actively involved in the agri-foodtech ecosystem as founders.
Unfortunately, the few female agri-foodtech founders still struggle to build sustainable agri-foodtech businesses that are scalable, fit for the market, or investment ready. This is a different story for male agri-foodtech founders who thrive exceedingly well in the African agri-foodtech ecosystem.
To close this huge gap, Agricatalyst Innovations has launched the African Women in Agri-Foodtech Program (AWAP) which is a holistic support program for African female agri-foodtech founders.
Launched on the 8th of March 2021 in commemoration of the International Women’s Day, AWAP is a 2-phase project starting with a continent-wide survey of female founders and co-founders in the agri-foodtech ecosystem to understand the female funding gaps and business challenges in Africa’s agri-foodtech ecosystem, followed by a systematic approach to bridging such gaps.
This phase starts in March and ends in May 2021. The second phase which is a structured food and ag accelerator program dedicated to female founders and entrepreneurs is composed of series of business training, incubation, mentoring and possible funding so as to bridge identified gaps. This phase is proposed to run through July — September 2021.
By the end of the September 2021, our goal is to have at least
- 1000+ women founders/cofounders leading agri-foodtech surveyed.
- 10+ women in agri-foodtech awareness events hosted across Africa.
- 50+ women founders empowered with business skills, mentoring and financial grants.
Are you a female founder in the agri-foodtech ecosystem or know one? Then here is an opportunity for you to join the AWAP program.
Start by filling in the survey via http://bit.ly/agricatalystAWAP and also share with more women. Selected female founders will be contacted to join the acceleration and mentorship program by June, 2021.
