We are thrilled to announce our 2014 Agribusiness Innovation Cohort of 13 start-ups from an applicant pool of 319 early stage agribusinesses that are innovatively solving different problems and gaps in the agriculture value chain.  The unifying theme of the 13 selected teams is their burning desire, dedication and readiness to take on the toughest threats to food security using innovative ideas and approaches.

We received applications from 17 countries spread out in 3 continents even from nations as diverse as Nepal and Saudi Arabia although East African countries had the bulk of the applicants. There was also a strong interest from West African countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Nigeria driven hugely by demand of incubation for early stage companies and accelerator programs wholly dedicated to social enterprise in the region.

Above all, our applicant pool reflects the wide reach of The Growth Hub globally—thanks to you. We appreciate your support during their recruitment for recommending our programs to your valuable networks—Asante sana.

Even more impressive than the geographic and gender diversity of our applicant pool was the outstanding range of agribusiness ideas, and this is reflected in the cohort we are about to unveil.

The entrepreneurs selected to join our Agribusiness Innovation Incubation program are working directly or indirectly in the following sectors: animal husbandry, agricultural inputs,  agri-processing, market linkages and access to production  information and knowledge.

The common high impact areas these companies seek to address are;

• Job creation through value addition of farm produce and processing of industrial inputs.
• Poverty alleviation by boosting production of drought resistant crops in semi arid & arid lands.
• There are also teams seeking to increase productivity and yields of small holder farmers through their products and services.