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The GIZ-SAIS Investment Readiness Programme

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Call for Applications

The GIZ-SAIS Investment Readiness Programme 2025 for African Agtech Start-ups.

by OFA
written by OFA

Application Deadline: September 2nd, 2024

Applications are now open for the 2025 SAIS Investment Readiness Programme. The SAIS Investment Readiness Programme (IRP) offers a year-long, tailor-made company development programme for African tech start-ups in agriculture, livestock, food, and climate.

Requirements

To be eligible for the programme, your company must meet the following minimum requirements:

  • Be registered in Africa
  • Be for-profit
  • Have a minimum viable product
  • Have a digital or tech-enabled solution for the agriculture, food or livestock value chain
  • Have a management team of at least two people
  • Have evidence of traction (paying customers, first revenue)
  • Contribute to climate change adaptation, income generation and/or food & nutrition security

Benefits

Selected start-ups receive services worth up to 35,000 EUR including:

  • Mentorship and coaching with local and international experts tailored to your specific needs to develop and implement strategies for rapid growth.
  • Additional services & technical resources to optimise certain key areas of your business, e.g. legal advice, online marketing, digital product optimization, design, and coding.
  • Individual trainings, e.g. pitch training, growth strategy, data analytics & management, term sheet, valuation, market analysis, marketing & sales.
  • Investment and partnership facilitation, e.g. guidance on fundraising strategy, preparation of fundraising rounds, support for due-diligence processes, introduction to investors & funds.
  • Networking and showcasing opportunities at two in-person community events scheduled back-to-back with the Africa Tech Summit in Nairobi, and one additional sector conference (travel costs for one representative from each start-up are covered by the programme).
  • Community exchanges and peer-learning, e.g. virtual group trainings and workshops, company visits, deal rooms, topical exchanges and inputs from external speakers and guests.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the SAIS Investment Readiness Programme

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Call for Applications

The GIZ-SAIS Investment Readiness Programme 2023 for African Agtech Start-ups.

by OFA
written by OFA

Application Deadline: October 31st, 2022

The SAIS Investment Readiness Programme (IRP) offers African tech start-ups from the agriculture, food, and livestock sectors a year-long tailor-made support program to make you investor ready and scale up your business!

Eligibility Requirements

Legal form

  • You have to be registered and operate in Africa
  • You have to provide a certificate of registration

Team (founders)

  • You must have a founding team of at least two people who work ideally full time for the start-up
  • Your founding and management team should have entrepreneurial and technical experience in their area of operation

Digital product/service

  • You must have a viable digital product that positively impacts the incomes of its customers
  • Your product must have a positive impact on the African AgTech, FoodTech or livestock sector (vertical sectors that have an influence can be accepted like eCommerce, FinTech, Logistics, EdTech etc)

Market access and traction

  • You must have launched your digital product at least six months before the application period
  • Your start-up has to provide evidence of traction (customer base, first revenue)

Business model

  • Your start-up should have an easily understandable and convincing business model.
  • Your start-up should have a clear statement of the problem, clear digital solution, clear customer segment, and clear revenue stream.

Add-ons (But not musts)

  • You have women in your founding team or as senior managers
  • You or one of your founding team members has an IT background
  • You and your founding team members have previous start-up experience
  • With your product you target a vulnerable group of customers

Benefits

Regular sessions of personalized coaching with local and international experts
Tailored to your specific and individual needs, during which strategies and measures for rapid growth will be developed and implemented.

Access to online training (tailored)
Structured around several key themes to develop your start-up further, e. g. Pitch Training, Growth Strategy, Data Analytics & Management, Term Sheet, Valuation, Market Analysis, Marketing & Sales, and so on.

Integrating you into a local hub (optional)
To get you a workplace for 6 months and facilitate contacts with major players in the local start-up scene, if needed.

Access to additional services
to optimize certain key areas of your business, e. g. legal advice, online marketing, digital product optimization, design, and coding.

Access to the GIZ network
of our global presence, local expertise, far-reaching networks, and years of experience working with the private sector, investors, and business partners. The network can help you to improve the visibility and contacts with start-ups nationally and internationally through participation in national, regional, and international events dedicated to African entrepreneurs.

Add-on: Programme for Female Leaders
In addition to the above-mentioned, we offer special support for female founders and women in leading positions of the start-ups:

  • Our Female Leader Circle meets with the aim of bringing women in leadership positions together, networking and learning from each other. Input sessions on topics that are of special interest for female leaders serve as a starting point for discussion.
  • A bi-annual Female Founders Award recognizes the achievement of female founder.


The IRP is offered by “Scaling Digital Agriculture Innovations through Start-up (SAIS)”, a project implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It is co-funded by Bayer Cares Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Our overall goal at SAIS is to increase incomes in the African agri-food sector through scaling proven digital innovations. For 2023, up to 20 start-ups will be selected to participate in a year-long Investment Readiness Programme

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the GIZ-SAIS Investment Readiness Programme 2023

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giz-sais-investment-readiness-programme
Call for Applications

The GIZ-SAIS Investment Readiness Programme 2022 for Agtech Start-ups in Africa.

by OFA
written by OFA

Application Deadline: August 31st, 2021

‘Scaling Digital Agriculture Innovations through Startups’ (SAIS) is a project implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The overall goal of the project is to support African startups in scaling their digital innovations; these innovations should enable users in the agriculture or food sectors to increase their income. Up to 18 startups are selected annually to participate in a nine-month Investment Readiness Programme fully funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The aim of the Investment Readiness Programme is to support more African startups in improving their business models, gaining access to investors and business partners, and achieving greater impact. Seven output indicators (also called investment readiness criteria or investment readiness output indicators) have been defined to assess and monitor the investment readiness level of selected startups.

Indicator 1: The competencies of the founding team are improved (e.g. pitch training, operations management, leadership, startup valuation (“pre-money”), clear roles, and responsibility of management team).

Indicator 2: The startup’s data room is improved and all necessary documents for effective due diligence are available (e.g. pitch deck, annual balance sheet, accounting, bank statements, forecasts, and exit strategy).

Indicator 3: A digital system for monitoring the startup’s user base is established and provides data (“data analytics”).

Indicator 4: A market research and competitiveness analysis of the startup is available for their own national market and possible expansion markets.

Indicator 5: A strategy and a catalogue of measures for marketing & sales are available and guide the actions of the founding team for scaling the start-up.

Indicator 6: The startup’s product (“digital agricultural innovation”) is market-ready (e.g. customer-driven product development, product-market fit, data security, suitable for national regulations).

Indicator 7: The startup’s customer growth is improved (improved customer acquisition rate).

Requirements

SAIS is looking for innovative startups that are about to scale rapidly and apply digital solutions to the agriculture and food sector which enable their users to improve their income. In addition, digital products or services that help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 are a plus and will be taken into special consideration.

Please note that early-stage startups will not be considered for the program.

Benefits

The Investment Readiness program includes:

Weekly advisory and coaching sessions

Weekly advisory and coaching sessions held virtually during which strategies and measures for rapid growth and scaling, product improvement and innovation, leadership and business management operations are developed and implemented with the startups;

Additional services

Based on the startup’s commitment, access to additional services to optimize certain segments (e.g. legal advice, marketing, coding, product optimization, etc.) of the startups.

Hub integration

Integration of the selected startups in one of our partner hubs in their home country in order to facilitate their visibility and establish contact with relevant actors in the local startup scene.

Access to GIZ-SAIS network

Access to investors and business partners from the GIZ-SAIS network.

Extended services

Add-on services for female entrepreneurs.

Meet-up events

Up to three in-person meet-up events. Depending on the COVID-19 situation over the course of 2022, it may be possible to shift the in-person meet-ups to online events. At the moment the plan is to start the IRP with a kick-off workshop in Capetown, in January 2022 (CW4), followed by a virtual mid-term check-in June 2022; a demo-day with investors and business partners will conclude the program in September 2022.

Mandatory criteria

Legal representation
– The startup must be registered and operating in at least one African country.
– A certification of incorporation will be a prerequisite.

Team
– The startup must have a team of at least two people.
– The management team must be highly motivated and work at the business ideally full-time.

Digital product
– The startup must have a viable digital product with a clear positive impact on its users’ income.
– The product must be aligned with one of the digital technologies listed below.

Access to market and traction
– The startup must have launched its digital product at least six months prior to the application period.
– The startups provide evidence of good traction (customer base, first revenues)

Competitive criteria

Business model
The startup should have an easily understandable and very convincing business model (clear problem statement, clear digital solution, clear customer segment and clear revenues stream).

Customer data
The startup should have access to customer data via its digital solution (number of customers and gender); if this is not the case, building customer databases will be one of the first development measures if the startup is selected for the IRP.

Level of innovation
Innovative and disruptive solutions will be regarded as an asset. Solutions that help mitigate the post impact of Covid-19 will be taken into special consideration.

You can apply if your innovation is listed in one of the following categories or technologies.

Categories

Building digital expertise for farmers (eSkills, eLiteracy), eLearning, precision farming, access to market, access to finance, digital payment, supply chain management, food delivery, animal and crops health, soil fertility, logistics and transport, e-commerce, gamification, big data, data analysis, open data, data protection, data security, cybersecurity, crowdsourcing, digital storytelling.

Technologies

Internet of things, precision farming (chipcards, sensors, drones, remote sensing system) artificial intelligence (AI), virtual/augmented reality, 3D-printer, robotics, digital learning software (eLearning system, MOOC platforms, open educational resources), database, blockchain, information-management systems (IMS), monitoring, controlling systems, GIS (Geo-Information Systems) /Mapping, SMS-services, web platforms, Apps, social media, big data analysis systems.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the GIZ-SAIS Investment Readiness Programme 2022

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