Africa AgTech & Inclusive Insurance Challenge

The Africa AgTech & Inclusive Insurance Challenge aims to celebrate and support young entrepreneurs who are working at the intersection of agriculture, insurance, climate, and gender to build resilience for smallholder farmers.

Businesses should have an existing insurance product for rural farmers, or be working towards introducing an insurance product as an additional product or service offering. The Africa AgTech & Resilience Challenge will support 5 finalists with one-on-one support to refine their business models, investment collaterals, and prepare for exposure to the investment community. Three winners will be awarded cash prizes to scale, refine, or launch innovative insurance products.

Who are we looking for?

Technology-led enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa who are offering solutions to the challenges faced in the development of agriculture resilience. If you are working on technology solutions that can help the development of agriculture insurance and index insurance, this challenge is for you! Even if you have not yet focused on applying your innovation to facilitating uptake of insurance for the agriculture sector, but see an opportunity of tailoring your solution to do so, you should apply.

Benefits

If selected, you could have the opportunity to:

1. Win a Cash Prize to scale or launch an insurance product
   • 1st Place wins $25,000
   • 2nd Place wins $15,000
   • 3rd Place wins $10,000
2. Receive one-on-one investment readiness support to improve the pitch and investment ask, as well as refine investment collateral
3. Advisory services from IFC insurance technical specialists
4. Pitch to an eminent Grand Jury and get feedback
5. Share your business model with global investors
6. Attend the Sankalp Africa Summit 2022 (online and in-person) in Nairobi, where you can meet a global network of investors, donors, and entrepreneur support organization
7. Leverage dedicated exhibition space for your business to gain visibility and generate leads

Eligibility

Apply for the Africa AgTech & Resilience Challenge if you meet the following eligibility criteria:

Thematic areas

Businesses should be operating in one of the four thematic areas below:

Data & Analytics
Enterprises that are innovating with the latest generation technology by:

• Improving data collection regarding crop yield and weather, and/or help forecasting
• Using latest generation remote-sensing and imagery solutions to collect data on crops or livestock
• Leveraging machine learning, AI, or block chain to improve efficiencies

Market Access & Linkage
Enterprises that are digitizing the agricultural supply chain through:

• Distributing inputs to farmers with low accessibility
• Providing information on market pricing
• Aggregating market information on supply and demand
• Ensuring access to market through logistics, storage, or traceability
• Empowering farmers with market knowledge through e-extension services

Agriculture Productivity
Enterprises that increase the resilience of small holder farmers through:

• Offering agronomy support
• Providing climate smart advisory services
• Connect peer to peer learning through chat-bots or platforms
• Reduce losses through pest control solutions
• Assist in the management of livestock or crops through early warning detection systems

Financial Inclusion for Agriculture
Enterprises that are empowering smallholder farmers through access to finance through:

• Offering loan underwriting services
• Providing credit offerings or asset-based financing services
• Offering insurance products
• Using technology to score credit-worthiness
• Offering peer to peer lending services or crowdfunding services

The Africa AgTech & Inclusive Insurance Challenge will be unable to support enterprises that are working exclusively in primary agriculture, (such as developing drought tolerant crops, offering irrigation services, etc.) unless the products and services are bundled with other offerings that can build resilience and drive forward inclusive insurance models for agriculture.