The GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation, which seeks to speed up the experiments, adoption, and scalability of digital innovations that facilitate the world’s most affected populations to adapt to, foresee, and absorb the negative impacts of climate change, has announced the recipients of grants, including eight African startups.
The fund’s goal is to support initiatives that help low-income and vulnerable communities better prepare for, cope with, or absorb shocks or pressures related to the environment.
The GSMA received the most proposals in this round’s history, with 524 innovations from 70 different nations requesting funding. In the end, 11 firms were chosen to receive grant funding, eight of which were from Africa.
Meet the 8 African startups:
CoAmana (Nigeria)
To solve Africa’s biggest economic gaps, CoAmana, which was founded in 2018, identifies business cases and creates commercially viable, market-enabling digital technologies.
To connect Nigeria’s farmers and small enterprises to an ecosystem made up of markets, information, and financial services, the startup piloted Amana Market in December 2019 and it is accessible via the internet, SMS, and mobile.
Crop2Cash (Nigeria)
With Crop2Cash, smallholder farmers can receive digital payments, have access to other digital financial services like credit, and have formal funding for agricultural supplies.
Additionally, Crop2Cash is tackling this exclusion by providing smallholder farmers in Nigeria with access to affordable finance using a USSD platform that gives farmers access to digital financial services.
HelloTractor (Nigeria)
An agricultural technology firm called Hello Tractor is utilizing IoT to link farmers in emerging markets with owners of farm equipment.
Utilizing CML to narrow the meteorological data gap and predictive models to build more resilient, adaptable farming and tractor-owning communities in order to maximize yield and boost income.
BENAA (Egypt)
The initiative by BENAA aims to enhance the functionality, upkeep, and usability of decentralized sanitation systems installed in Egypt’s outlying rural areas.
These units’ remote locations frequently make their operation and maintenance more difficult. Furthermore, because farmers are unaware of the nutrient concentration in the treated wastewater, which is nutrient-rich, reuse is not maximized.
To track and analyze the quality of treated wastewater and the number of nutrients in it, the startup’s project builds an IoT system in these decentralized treatment units.
This IoT system gives the farmers with information about the number of nutrients in the water through a mobile app that will advise them to optimize fertilizer use. It also enables the operation team to quickly respond to problems with water quality.
Lersha (Ethiopia)
Through its own platform, “Lersha,” GAS offers smallholder farmers a one-stop digital service that allows them to use technology to get farm inputs, hire mechanization services, and request dynamic agro-climate consulting. By encouraging direct linkage between farm finance and insurance, increasing investments in financial education and awareness, and developing the tLersha platform, GAS is enhancing platform usage while also offering specialized e-extension and agro-climate advice services.
J-palm (Liberia)
J-Palm The primary objective of Liberia is to construct a sustainable model that would provide high-quality consumer goods for Liberians while also generating revenue and employment opportunities for Liberians.
J-Palm Liberia strives to give access to contemporary, more effective processing technologies to smallholder oil palm processors in rural communities.
For smallholders, J-Palm Liberia’s tiny mills cut processing time by 75% and increased extraction rates by 53%.
The palm kernels, which were formerly thought of as waste, are also purchased by J-Palm Liberia for processing into Palm Kernel Oil (PKO), which is then used in its own line of health and beauty products or offered for sale to other companies.
Simusolar (Tanzania)
Simusolar boosts rural earnings with practical solutions like freezers, water pumps, and fishing lights. Simusolar offers a total package that includes design, last-mile delivery, financing, and after-sales support.
Their client relationships and dedication to excellence define and set them apart from other businesses operating in Tanzania and Uganda.
Aquarech (Kenya)
To increase the productivity of fish farmers, provide them with access to markets, and establish an inclusive aquaculture value chain in Kenya, Aquarech, a science-backed agribusiness technology company, uses mobile technology.
Over the term of the funding, the GSMA innovation fund will assist these entrepreneurs in growing and realizing their complete capacity in order to promote initiatives to increase climate resilience.
This will be accomplished by fostering partnerships with mobile operators and public sector organizations, providing technical support on how to reach and ultimately benefit communities most susceptible to climate change, providing tools, templates, and expert advisory support on how to demonstrate socioeconomic and climate impact and promote product advancement, and providing ways to raise their visibility to prospective investors and partners.
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