Deadline: 10-Oct-21
The E4Impact Foundation is inviting applications for O-Farms Accelerator Program an African SME accelerator completely focused on circular agribusiness with the goal of making circularity a mainstream approach for improved rural livelihoods and sustainability.
In Kenya, E4Impact Accelerator will implement the O-Farm’s Accelerator Program targeted to SMEs within the agribusiness circular economy that aims to support the SMEs to refine their innovations, strengthen their business models, access financing opportunities and create a founding community advocating for better adoption of a circular economy and supportive policies & legislation.
Project Examples
Here are some examples of circular agribusiness models that O-Farms might support:
- Human food: converting whey, a by-product from cheese processing, into a nutritious yoghurt for low-income consumers. Or converting soy cake, coming from soy oil processing, into delicious soy chunks.
- Animal feed: converting papaya seeds or orange peels into a new ingredient for animal fodder. Or growing black soldier fly larvae on organic waste to produce affordable proteins for cattle farmers.
- Food packaging: converting by-products such as pineapple crowns or maize cobs into biodegradable packaging materials for the food industry.
- Soil enhancement: converting rice husks into affordable fertilizer for smallholder farmers.
- Renewable energy: converting agricultural waste into biogas that powers agricultural machinery. Or producing briquettes for low-income households to cook their meals on.
Benefits
For the first cohort, up to 12 enterprises will be selected to join the program. The enterprises can expect to receive the following benefits:
- Customized training program on agri-circularity business
- Technical Assistance to embed circularity principles in the business model including strengthening the systems and processes.
- Coaching and Mentorship – personalized and group coaching to unpack training into business implementation
- Links to financial and investment opportunities
- Networking and peer learning to strengthen innovations and build a community of best practices in agri-circularity.
- Competitive peer-to-peer awarded seed grants of up to Euro 50,000 (for 2 cohort selected enterprises)
- Networking opportunities to showcase your solution and meet with investors and other stakeholders.
Eligibility Criteria
- Be an enterprise in the agricultural sector
- Have an innovative or disruptive solution / business model that reduces food losses, or valorises the by-products generated in food production or processing, back into the food system for human food or animal feed, or into biodegradable packaging materials for the food industry, or into compost/organic fertilizers or into bio-energy.
- Be a growth stage enterprise with an existing customer base (post revenue)
- Be a Kenyan registered enterprise with at least one of the founding team members being Kenyan.
For more information, visit https://www.e4iaccelerator.org/o-farms-accelerator-program/