Deadline: 10-Feb-23

GSMA is pleased to announce the AgriTech Accelerator to support and fast-track the growth of innovative, revenue-generating digital agriculture solutions that support the shared vision of improving smallholder farmers.

The GSMA AgriTech Accelerator (‘the Accelerator’) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is part of the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation in Agriculture and being carried out by the GSMA on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).

The GSMA will provide up to 10 selected applicants (cohort members) with technical assistance for a period of two years to support the scaling of digital agriculture solutions. Cohort members will benefit from a range of technical assistance tools, including targeted consulting from the GSMA team, user experience and product design/management support, farmer feedback surveys, access to GSMA events and insights and capacity building for investor readiness.   No direct grant funding will be provided to cohort members of the Accelerator.

Objectives 

• Livelihoods;
• Financial inclusion;
• Climate resilience.

Focus Areas

• Applicants to the Accelerator will be expected to clearly articulate how their digital agriculture solution, leveraging mobile technology, supports improved livelihoods, climate resilience and financial inclusion for smallholder farmers, and enables equitable access for female farmers, young farmers and/or farmers with disabilities;
• Some examples of use cases that are relevant to the Accelerator’s objective and promote access to services, markets and assets for smallholder farmers are given below.
  • Digital Advisory;
  • Agri Digital Financial Services;
  • Digital procurement;
  • Agri e-commerce;
  • Smart Farming.
• This is not an exhaustive list and they will consider applications promoting other use cases that align with the objectives of the Accelerator.

Eligible Countries

• Digital agriculture solution providers from the following countries are eligible to participate in the Accelerator:
  • Africa: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia;
  • Asia: Cambodia, Jordan, Pakistan;
  • Latin America: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must demonstrate compliance on the following points:
  • Be registered to do business in the country of project implementation (whether domestic or foreign-owned or a joint venture);
  • Clear the GSMA background/sanctions checks, through which additional due diligence materials may be requested;
  • Be in satisfactory financial health, have adequate financial systems and have human resource capacity to implement the Accelerator’s commitments; and
  • Demonstrate how they are compliant with local and international data protection and privacy regulations and be prepared to respond to questions or provide evidence.
• GSMA strongly encourage applications from organisations who have:
  • Female founders/board members, and good representation of women at all levels of the company;
  • Local entrepreneurs, and good representation of local talent at all levels of the organisation;
  • Partnerships with relevant local stakeholders (e.g. community-based organisations) to deliver the project on the ground.
• The following organisations will not be considered as primary applicants for technical assistance, although they strongly encourage partnerships with these entities, where relevant, as part of the application:
  • Mobile network operators;
  • Universities or academic organisations;
  • Start-up accelerators and incubators.

For more information, visit GSMA.