Corporate Young Ventures Acceleration Program // Apply Today

Corporate Young Ventures Acceleration Program // Apply Today

Are you a young agribusiness SME interested in working with a corporate partner to grow your business?

The Corporate Young Ventures Acceleration Program is for you!

A 1st of its kind, the program has been launched by the SME Support Centre in partnership with GIZ, INTEGRATION, & Meru Greens EPZ Ltd. The Corporate Young Ventures Acceleration Program is looking to grow and leverage opportunities offered by corporate partners who are planning to expand their supply chain.

The program’s target is an agribusiness preferably one in the horticulture and french beans value chains. The program will be intense & will have a robust selection process.

Benefits of the Corporate Young Ventures Acceleration Program

The Corporate Young Ventures Acceleration Program is aimed at initially supporting young agri-business SMEs who are looking to scale their business.

Through a partnership with a corporate partner, a young agri-business SME will have an opportunity to be mentored, to have B2B sales opportunities, to receive investment in the business, and to access a leading network of experts in agribusiness including productivity experts.

Eligible agribusinesses should be a young venture between 2 and 7 years old founded or run by women and youth between the ages of 18 -35 years. The entity should have a yearly turnover of KES 5 million to 50 million with at least one co-founder who is full-time in the agribusiness able to commit to full participation in the process.

Interested? Register here today!

About Meru Greens

Meru Greens Horticulture is a private service provider company formed in the year 1996 with the sole objective of organizing smallholder farmers to produce and market fruits and vegetables, both in the domestic and export markets.

Meru Greens’ mission is on a mission to empower all players in the value chain by committing to the production and supply of quality fruits and vegetables. They also have the vision to be the best fruit and vegetable producer and marketer in the region.

As the first African-owned vegetable processor in Africa, Meru Greens is looking to impact young agribusiness SMEs through the Corporate Young Ventures Acceleration Program.

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About the SME Support Centre

The SME Support Centre was born out of the need to tackle the African unemployment problem by providing business and investment support to SMEs. Their focus is to ensure the growth and scale of SMEs in Africa into fortune 500 companies by providing the necessary business advisory and mobilizing the investment capital required to support the growth of these companies.

SME Support Centre aims to achieve its vision and mission by building long-term partnerships with various players in the African ecosystem which includes funders, governments, and other like-minded private sector players.  Through their programs and robust range of services, SME Support Centre believes that they will impact thousands of SMEs on the African continent.

About GIZ

Deutsche für Gesellschaft Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has been in Kenya since 1975 working with both local and international partners on behalf of the German Government on a range of projects. Its priority areas are sustainable economic development and employment promotion as well as agriculture and food security.

GIZ supports vocational education and training for youths and young adults with the objective to equip them with appropriate skills to meet the demands of the labor market. Activities include developing educational institutions, integrating companies into practical, cooperative vocational training schemes, and supporting start-up centers.

In the agricultural sector, GIZ promotes state-of-the-art methods that will improve employment and food security and strengthen resilience to drought. Its projects aim to increase productivity, improve market access and promote vocational training for farmers.

In 2019, GIZ launched the Scaling Digital Agriculture Innovations through Startups (SAIS) to help African AgTech and FoodTech start-ups improve their investment readiness and to facilitate their access to investors and business partners. Last year, our member Zaidi Technologies was named among the 15 African AgriTech and FoodTech startups of the Investment Readiness Program under the SAIS project.

Previously, GIZ has also worked with MEST through their Make-IT in Africa initiative to launch the Tech By Her Accelerator for female entrepreneurs.

Register today!

Featured image by Mark Stebnicki from Pexels