Eight final teams in the Kosmos Innovation Center 2018 AgriTech Challenge will pitch to judges to be selected as overall winner on October 11, this year.
The winning team will receive $50,000 seed-funding to start and grow their business.
The AgriTech Challenge tasks young entrepreneurs with developing innovative, technology-led business ideas to solve problems in Ghana’s agricultural sector.
The 2018 Challenge attracted 500 applicants, which was whittled down to 121 initial programme participants.
The eight business teams currently preparing for the final pitch on October 11 are Growth Factor, which is facilitating quick payments to SMEs in the agricultural sector; Tech Shelta, which is providing farm management services; ProFish (Lojaanor), which is helping connect small agricultural businesses with potential buyers and Soil Solution, which is helping farmers improve their soil quality and increase production.
The others are Farm Cure, which is helping farmers resolve challenges with pest control; Alpha (Rotate), providing farmers with access to skilled labour; AgroSol, which is providing processing services within the agricultural sector and Kwidex, which is providing farmers access to financial information about their business.
Over the past nine months, participants have benefited from training, including 20 workshops, two group market research tours and an individual team led market research activity to help them refine their minimum viable product.
The teams have also been working on their proof of concept since July.
This is required as part of the final pitch to demonstrate that their products can be built and work for potential end-users.
Joe Mensah, Kosmos Energy VP and Country Manager for Ghana, said: “The KIC business teams have come far with working on their minimum viable product and building prototypes. By making this requirement of the final teams, we ensure that the businesses are more robust and attractive to potential investors.”
The Kosmos Innovation Center is now looking for applications for the 2019 AgriTech Challenge cohort.
Applications are open until 11 November 2018 via http://kosmosinnovationcenter.com.