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Reimagining the future of
African agriculture

The AYuTe Africa NextGen, an initiative of Heifer International, was established in 2021 as an agribusiness innovation initiative designed to catalyze ground-up innovation that address challenges faced by smallholder farmers at scale, providing the incubation and catalytic financing needed for these businesses to scale. AYuTe (Agriculture, Youth and Technology) combines the power of African youth with the many possibilities of emerging technologies to support smallholder farmers across the continent grow their businesses and incomes.

At the core of the initiative is the AYuTe Challenge, a competition that identifies and enables young African entrepreneurs to develop and scale agtech solutions. Selected companies receive part of a $1.5 million catalytic grant, along with technical support to scale their solutions and expand their impact.

Become an AYuTe Africa NextGen 2025 Champion

The AYuTe Africa NextGen is offering something new for African agriculture. We invite young agripreneurs to showcase their transformative innovations that are enhancing Africa’s food systems by driving transformative changes in smallholder farming and redefining agriculture as a promising and rewarding career.

AYuTe Africa NextGen Champions must demonstrate that their innovations are market-tested, farmer-ready and poised to provide an impact that will cascade across the food systems of multiple countries. And most importantly, you must prove you can empower smallholder farmers with solutions that enable them to increase their income and improve their livelihoods.

Eligibility Criteria

To be considered for the regional AYuTe Africa NextGen, you must:

● Have a minimum of three years of experience working with smallholder farmers in Africa, with demonstrated impact on their revenue.

● Must be operating in one of the following sectors:
- Access to Finance

- Access to Market

- Access to Energy

- Climate Smart Solutions and Resilience

● Registered and operating in Sub-Saharan Africa

● Show your organization has a sustainable business model that will allow it to stay profitable as it expands operations to serve more smallholder farmers.

● Demonstrate that you are providing a truly innovative product or service, offering unique solutions rather than duplicates.

● Proven demand among smallholder farmers and affordability.

AG
Youth
Tech

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Meet Some of Our Previous AYuTe Africa Champions

West Africa 2022

ThriveAgric: Building Africa’s Largest Network of Productive, Profitable Farmers

Uka Eje and Ayodeji Arikawe are recognized for their work in developing a powerhouse agritech innovation, connecting African smallholder farmers to financing, education and premium markets on harvest. ThriveAgric already has assembled a network of over 500,000 farmers in Nigeria and beyond—40% of them women and about a third of them youth farmers, with plans to reach 10 million by 2027.

Southern Africa 2022

Brastorne: Circumventing the Internet to Connect the Unconnected in Rural Africa

Martin Stimela and Naledi Magowe are recognized for their work connecting the unconnected across rural Africa, creating information and market opportunities for farmers. The Botswana-based Brastorne Enterprises has connected 1.8 million Africans who lack meaningful internet access, through its multi-channel solutions that are compatible with feature phones, and is committed to connecting 760 million Africans.

East Africa 2022

The Digital Dairy Farm: DigiCow Delivers for Africa’s Smallholder Milk Producers

Peninah Wanja, Vincent Kimani and Jemimah Wanjiku are recognized for their work connecting dairy farmers to critical farm services by harnessing mobile phone technology. DigiCow’s innovative and practical support system for small-scale dairy farmers has reached 60,00 farmers to date, providing fast and easy access to skilled and approved veterinarians, artificial insemination providers and feed supply services.

Meet the Champions

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