SAIS Investment Readiness Programme 2024

The Investment Readiness Programme (IRP) is provided by the GIZ Project ‘Scaling Digital Agriculture Innovations through Startups’ (SAIS). The programme is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (German Agency for International Cooperation) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It is co-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). You can find more information about us and our team here or on our LinkedIn page.

Our overall goal at SAIS is to scale digital innovations from the AgTech, FoodTech, ClimateTech and LivestockTech industry in Africa. We believe that we can do this by supporting startups to become investment ready and to gain investments. Therefore, we run the ‘Investment Readiness Programme’. We provide valuable resources such as access to a network of experts, mentors, investors and business partners.

SAIS provides benefits worth up to $50k, which contain:

• Sessions of personalized coaching with local and international experts tailored to your specific needs to develop and implement strategies for rapid growth.
• Access to individual online trainings structured around several key themes to develop your startup further. Topics are defined each year to tackle the need of the current cohort and could include e.g. pitch training, growth strategy, data analytics & management, term sheet, valuation, market analysis, marketing & sales.
• Access to additional services to optimize certain key areas of your business, get access to a specific budget that can cover, e. g. legal advice, online marketing, digital product optimization, design, coding and travel costs to conferences.
• We offer you the opportunity to use a local hub or office space, where you can connect with peers. Furthermore, we support you in increasing your visibility and facilitate contacts with major players in the local, regional and international startup ecosystems.
• By being part of our Investment Readiness Programme, you will be given the opportunity to meet people on regional, national, and international level to scale your business, either through potential investments or business partnerships.
• In addition to the above-mentioned, we offer special support for female founders and women in leading positions of the startups through
  networking and peer to peer learning as well as increased visibility.

Our approach is to connect the start-ups we are supporting with potential investors and business partners, but we do not directly invest. Successful applicants that are chosen for the Investment Readiness Programmes (IRPs) will receive different services from us (please see answer under question 3) that are worth up to $50k. Unlike other accelerator or investment programmes, we do not acquire shares of the companies that successfully applied to our IRPs. However, during the IRPs, startups get access to investors and partners to raise more funding. So far, more than half of our startups raised capital during or one year after they concluded the IRP.

We are looking for AgTech and FoodTech startups, as well as related industries like ClimateTech, FinTech and LivestockTech including animal health tech. All African companies, including North Africa can apply with one exception, which is South Africa. The company needs to be registered in Africa.

Furthermore, the following eligibility criteria apply:

• You must have a management team of at least two people who work ideally full time for the startup.
• Your founding and management team should have entrepreneurial and technical experience in their area of operation.
• You must have a viable digital product or service that positively impacts society.
• You must have launched your digital product at least six months before you submit your application to us.
• Your startup must provide evidence of traction (customer base, first revenue).
• Your startup should have an understandable and convincing business model (clear statement of the problem, clear digital solution, clear customer segment, and clear revenue stream).

Add-ons, but not musts are:

• You are a female founder, or your team has women in high management positions.
• You or one of your founding team members has an IT background.
• You and your founding team members have previous startup experience.
• Your product targets a vulnerable group of customers.

You can apply to the SAIS IRP if your digital innovation fits into one of the following categories or technologies used somehow in the broader AgTech, FoodTech or livestock sector, including ClimateTech:

Technologies:
Agricultural intelligent machinery, Artificial intelligence (AI), Autonomous systems, Autonomous vehicles, Augmented reality, Big data, Blockchain, Cloud computing, e-commerce tools, Information management systems (IMS), Internet of things (IoT), Data analytics, Digital learning software, Drones, Machine learning, Marketplace service, Precision farming, Robotics, Sensors, SMS-services, Online payment processing, USSD, Virtual Reality (VR), 3D Printing.

Do you think that your category is missing and should be listed? Tell us at: sais@giz.de.

Competition is good for business. However, we try to avoid accepting competitive companies from the same regions into the same cohort. If you see a competitor in one of our previous cohorts, don’t worry.

1. The accelerated startups commit to provide data about their progress from the start of the programme until at least one year after the end of the programme, concerning: revenue, number of users, customers and potential ecosystem actors, funds raised and number of employees on a monthly basis.
2. All data will only be collected to track the progress of each startup during the programme and will not be published or shared with external third parties.
3. Each team needs to commit on average 2 hours per week for participating in the programme; this applies most often to the founders but not only. Co-Founders, CTOs or higher management can also participate. But it has to be clear from the beginning who will join over the whole period of the programme.
4. We require access to data and customers, with the agreement that we can execute at least two times a survey questionnaire with your customers to evaluate the impact of your product/service.

Yes! We try to always also select businesses that have female founders or women in leading positions. We support them on different topics, such as making deals in male-dominated startup ecosystems (pitch, negotiations, etc.), balancing job (startup leadership) and family, but also topics such as gender-specific product development and customer orientation. The experience from the last years has shown that not only the founders of a startup, but also other female team members who are in higher positions in the company can benefit from these measures. For this reason, we developed certain formats like the ‘Female Leader Circle’ and ‘Female Founders Award’ to empower women to thrive in business.

At the end of our Investment Readiness Programme we do not say good-bye, but you will stay part of our community. What does this mean exactly? We offer monthly community sessions where you get new insights, meet interesting and important people such as investors and also learn from and connect to your peers. Usually, you would also stay in contact with your “navigator” – your main point of contact in the SAIS team – and we would keep you informed about upcoming opportunities. Our aim is to constantly grow the community to have the benefit for all start-ups, a network for FoodTech and AgTech start-ups all over Africa.

If your company does not have an office, we support you to access a local hub or co-working space to provide a workplace for you and your team. We have a specific budget for this, which you can use, but do not need to use as you can also use it for different services. Once the budget is consumed, a continued use of the space must be covered by the startup.

Yes, we have a special track for startups from francophone countries in Africa and mentors and experts from these regions, so we can cover the needs of French speaking teams. We support up to 5 French-speaking startup teams from Africa per year. For all the other startups, the primary language that we use in verbal and written communication during the programme is English.

Yes, each year we try to select two to five startups that create digital innovations for the livestock sector. They receive similar support like all the other startups and the language of the Programme would be only English. This specific Investment Readiness Programme is co-financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Going through multiple programmes simultaneously is not recommended, as the time commitment to the company and the different programmes at the same time will be challenging for you. In the end, it’s your decision.

Each day will look different for each startup. It mainly depends on the different services you will choose from. Your navigator from the SAIS team will help you to identify your priorities and guide you through the different requirements.

Participate in the Q&A sessions. We will offer (in the beginning of September and the end of October before the closing of the deadline) online meetings where you can ask all questions about the Investment Readiness Programme and the application process. We will announce the dates on our LinkedIn page.

This is someone from the SAIS team who will be your main contact point during the Investment Readiness Programme. He or she will visit you, if possible, on site, develop with you your main goals and KPIs for the time of the Investment Readiness Programme. You will have regular check-ins and the opportunity to ask all questions that you might have.

The video is required for the application process. We are not looking for a professionally produced video; we want to see what you are working on, why you’re excited about it, how your team works together, and what makes you unique. You can record a video with your phone but make sure the audio quality is good.

Please reach out to VC4A directly for any support needed with your application after submission.

You can reach out to Akram or Tegan from the VC4A team.

Please note that this is only intended for technical matters only (i.e. difficulty uploading a document, difficulty uploading pitch video, changing pitch deck version attached..etc.) other non-technical matters will be disregarded.

We use seven criteria to measure the performance of the startups during the programme:

• Indicator 1: The managerial skills of the founding team are improved, and the sharing of roles and responsibilities within the management team is clearly defined.
• Indicator 2: The startup’s database is updated and all the documents necessary for adequate ‘due diligence’ by investors are available (e.g., pitch deck, annual balance sheet, accounting report, bank statements, forecasts, and strategy release).
• Indicator 3: A digital user base monitoring system is established and provides reliable data.
• Indicator 4: A market study and an analysis of the startup’s competitiveness are available for the national and possible expansion markets.
• Indicator 5: A strategy and a catalogue of measures for marketing and sales are available and guide the actions of the founding team to develop the startup.
• Indicator 6: The startup’s digital product is customer-focused and ready to market (e.g. product adaptation to the target market, data security guaranteed, adaptation to applicable national regulations).
• Indicator 7: The startup’s customer acquisition rate has improved.

These indicators are based on what investors look at and addressing them will help you to raise investment.

In addition to investment readiness, we measure the customer growth of the startups, their impact on the income of their customers, food security and climate adaptation, and of course the investments raised during the programme until one year after.

If you have worked with GIZ as an employee or contractor, please let us know and indicate this clearly in the application. Most of the time, this is not an issue. If you have questions in advance, reach out to us via SAIS@giz.de.

We highly recommend that your founding team works in the company full-time so that you can focus on your business. But we fully understand your decision not to quit your previous job quite yet, especially if your startup is still early stage.

We don’t exclude applications just because they have a single founder. But we look for great balanced teams who have a full range of skills. Therefore, we highly recommend you seek co-founders who balance your skillset. If you are a single founder, you should build a strong and very committed management team around you. By the way, that’s very often also a requirement among investors.

No, it is not.

No! We treat application data confidentially. We take measures to protect your data and information, as this guarantees our core business model and good reputation.

No, you just have to fill out the application form.

We are happy to consider any application considering our eligible criteria listed in question 5. Just remember that your digital innovation should address the African agriculture and food sector.

Please get in touch with us at sais@giz.de and tell us about the company and why you think they’ll be a good fit.

Yes, NOVABLE and VC4A are our partners supporting us in the selection of startups. They also actively reach out to companies on our behalf and inform them about the open call for application.