‘Scaling digital agriculture innovations through start-ups’ (SAIS)

Digital technologies are increasingly seen as important drivers of the modernisation of the agriculture and food sector in Africa. They come from a growing local start-up and founder scene and often address known issues of the sector (e.g. availability of consulting services, market access for smallholders, improvement of cultivation and harvesting methods, etc.).

Although many of these start-ups have developed promising digital solutions and business models, their products only reach a limited number of users. Thereby, the potential digitization of the agriculture and food sector remains unexploited.

The purpose of SAIS is to increase the investor readiness of selected African start-ups in the food and agriculture sector that are in the post-seed phase and about to scale. For this purpose, the project provides tailor-made company development and venture building (e.g. improving business models, product development, customer relations, marketing strategies, financial management) through an Investment Readiness Programme (IRP) for start-ups and facilitates access to additional investment and business opportunities.

It is anticipated that thereby start-ups will obtain access to additional investments and capital, thus enabling them to grow faster and better scale their digital innovations.

Overall responsibility for the advisory packages of the contractor (quality and deadlines)

• Coordinating and ensuring communication with GIZ, partners and others involved in the project
• Design, implementation monitoring and evaluation of company building measures for selected start-ups as well as integrating cross cutting issues such as ensuring and promoting gender equality
• Overall responsibility for the use of funds and financial planning in consultation with SAIS project management of GIZ
• Personnel management, in particular identifying the need for short-term assignments within the available budget, as well as planning and steering assignments and supporting local and international short-term experts
• Responsibility for designing and implementing a sound results-based monitoring system
• Regular reporting in accordance with deadlines
• Supporting the SAIS project management with the evaluation and adaptation of the SAIS the project and, if applicable, supporting a respective follow-up phase