Technical Education, Funding And Policy Advocacy — The Triple Tools Needed To Foster Female Founded Agri-foodtech Businesses In Africa
To scale, every business requires specific tools and resources- these could be funds, human resources, technology, mentorship, tailored training, favourable government policies or infrastructure.
When it comes to agri-foodtech, the needs of founders include but are not limited to funding, technical knowledge, favourable government policies, research, access to markets and partnerships for scale. These needs are critical that without them, an African agri-foodtech business won’t survive its first year of launch.
Over the past few years, African agrifoodtech businesses have witnessed a rise in accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists and digital tools that are springing up as solutions to solve these needs. Within the past 5 years, over US$19 million has been invested in the Agritech sector in Africa alone, with the number of startups operating in the market increasing by 110% during the same period (http://disrupt-africa.com/agrinnovating-for-africa-2018/). The agrifoodtech sector has also recorded an increased number of female founders which is an impressive growth for the continent.
Despite the recorded growth in venture capital that is invested in the Agri-FoodTech sector and technical knowledge transfer through accelerations and incubations, female Agri-FoodTech founders still struggle to build and scale their businesses.
How about improving this to support more women in agri-foodtech?
From studies conducted, women founded agri-foodtech businesses do not survive due to lack of :
- Technical education offered in form of bootcamps, incubation and acceleration programs which provides beneficiaries with the adequate skills, knowledge and tools needed to skillfully use and build digital solutions for their agri-foodtech businesses.
- Funding which provides women founders with the capital to run their agri-foodtech business operations.
In 2018, it was discovered that only 3% of funding dollars and 7% of deals went to female-only founded startups in the Agri-FoodTech industry, an increase of only 2% and 4% since 2013 (mwoma.org). So far until 2020, only 3% of financial investments have been allocated to female-led startups in Africa (Briter Bridges).
3. Advocacy to influence the enactment of favourable government policies which has been an issue beyond the control of African female founders. It is imperative that while designing support programs for women in Agriculture, a greater consideration should be given to women who are leveraging technology to harness the growth of agricultural productivity across Africa.
Technical education, funding and favourable policy enactments are the viable ways female agri-foodtech entrepreneurs can be supported.
Agricatayst Innovations is keen on increasing the growth and scale of agri-foodtech businesses in Africa. Through the African Women in Agri-foodtech program (AWAP), we hope to close the existing gaps in technical training, funding and advocacy, that limits the growth of African women in Agri-foodtech.
Are you a female founder or co-founder in the agri-foodtech ecosystem or know one? You can be a beneficiary of the AWAP program by first filling out the survey via http://bit.ly/agricatalystAWAP. Selected female founders who fill out the survey will be contacted to join the acceleration and mentorship program in June.
