Early-stage investment and training venture, Village Capital, has selected startups from across the continent for its Agriculture Africa Accelerator and Nigeria’s Reelfruit was selected.
A non-profit organisation, Village Capital, finds, trains, and funds early-stage ventures solving major global problems across various sectors – agriculture, education, energy, financial inclusion, and health. And this year, its Agriculture Africa accelerator was focused on solutions that improve outcomes for small farmers and address food security issues.
This is because Village Capital recognises that solutions that improve and scale smallholder farmers will help the African economy.
We’re really excited about this agriculture cohort, which includes some incredible diverse solutions from across Sub-Saharan Africa. We kept our call quite broad, from hardware to vertical farming, and I’m glad we were able to comb through a strong semi-finalist batch to land where we are today. I’m also thrilled to expand our support of Ugandan and southern African ventures with this group.
Adedana Ashebir, Regional Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Village Capital.
The list of selected startups include Nigerian fruit agribusiness, Reelfruit. Founded in 2012 by Affiong Williams, the startup makes dried fruit snacks which it sells in over 20 stores nationwide. This is quite a unique niche and not only is the startup creating quality snacks, it is also improving the fruit value chain.
Other selected startups includes Uganda’s Akellobanker, a startup which allows farmers to purchase inputs on credit; Agro Supply, a mobile layaway service; Kenya’s Capture, a workflow streamlining solution; Raino Tech4Impact a cold chain solutions provider; Senegal’s Aywajieune, an online platform for sea products; Ghana’s Complete Farmer an agri investment solution; Zambia’s eMsika and e-commerce platform; and Rwanda’s Volta Irrigation, an irrigation services firm.
These startups will partake in the accelerator after which two winning businesses will be selected. According to a report by Disrupt Africa, these two winners will each walk away with a $50,000 investment prize.
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