In case you have been wondering what we’ve been up to over the last 6 months at the ScaleUp Lab by FATE Foundation, we have had a very amazing entrepreneurial journey with 10 high potential agribusiness entrepreneurs at the 3rd cohort of the ScaleUp Agribusiness Accelerator Programme and would like to share some of the highlights with you!
The ScaleUp Agribusiness Accelerator Programme is a unique accelerator programme developed by FATE Foundation in partnership with African Capital Alliance Foundation, aimed at providing targeted support to growth stage high-potential Nigerian agribusiness entrepreneurs who are looking to scale their businesses, expand their market reach and attract potential investors and strategic partners.
The Agribusiness Accelerator Programme commenced in April 2019 with the selection of top 10 entrepreneurs from 1,357 applications received from all over Nigeria. The 10 entrepreneurs are: Adeyinka Tekenah (Lagos), Ayoade Oyedotun (Oyo), David Galadima (Kaduna), David Shemang (Kaduna), Joseph Ali (Abuja), Moses Gbadebo (Ogun), Olayemi Afolabi (Osun), Oluwaseyi Adeniyi (Osun), Oscar Obiora (Ogun) and Timothy Ajekiigbe (Kwara).
Consequently, they were engaged in a one-week intensive accelerator bootcamp in April 2019. This was followed by gap advisory and coaching sessions, entrepreneurial visits and post boot camp sessions over a period of 5 months on key business and sector specific areas targeted at preparing and positioning their businesses for growth and scale with regards to Product Development, Process Improvement, Access to Market and Investment Readiness. Some of the sessions are Agribusiness Value Chain & Ecosystem Mapping, Innovation in the Agribusiness Space, The Market & Business Model, People & Operations, Strategic Visioning, Business Ethics, Scaling Operational Capacity, Scaling Customer Acquisition, Cashflow Management & Budgeting, Pricing Strategies, Accessing Larger Supply Chains and Accessing Larger Markets.
The ScaleUp Agribusiness Accelerator Programme 03 was concluded with a Demo Day and Pitch Competition on Friday, September 6, 2019 which provided a platform for the business founders to showcase their products and pitch to key funding partners while the top three (3) entrepreneurs received cash grant awards. Emerging as the overall winner of the Pitch Competition is Timothy Ajekiigbe (CEO, Uplinx Allied Services) who received a prize award of NGN 1,000,000. Oscar Obiora (CEO, The AgroBarn Limited) and Adeyinka Tekenah (CEO, Happy Coffee) also emerged as runners-up and received prize awards of NGN 500,000 and NGN 250,000 respectively.
We would like to say a very big Thank You to all our Volunteer Faculty Members for their unrelenting passion and commitment of their time and effort to supporting the growth of our agribusiness entrepreneurs through the 6-month Accelerator Programme. Specifically, we would like to say a very big Thank You to the following Faculty Members for their exceptional support in ensuring the success of the programme: Mr. AfricanFarmer Mogaji (Course Director for ScaleUp Agribusiness Accelerator 2019 & Chairman, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI Agribusiness), Ms. Wendy Emesie (Head, External Relations, African Capital Alliance) Mr. Sadiq Usman (Director, Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) Plc), Mr. Kola Adeniji (MD/CEO, NIJI Group), Mrs. Edobong Akpabio (Vice-Chair, LCCI Agribusiness), Mr. Ayo Olajiga (CEO, FoodPro Limited) and Mr. Richard Ogundele (Founder, JMSF Agribusiness Nigeria).
Post programme, the top ten (10) entrepreneurs will be enrolled in a 12-month sector-specific mentoring programme as they implement their growth plans to scale, and they will be officially graduating at the FATE Annual Celebration coming up on Thursday, December 5, 2019.
For more details about the ScaleUp Agribusiness Accelerator Programme, please visit www.fatefoundation.org/scaleup.