Innovation for Ecosystem Restoration Africa 2023 programme selected ten sustainability startups
The Innovation for Ecosystem Restoration Africa 2023 program, which seeks to support businesspeople promoting ecosystem restoration by addressing deforestation, land degradation, water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, and unfavourable climate change, has chosen ten African sustainability startups to participate.
The Innovation for Ecosystem Restoration Africa 2023 program, which is run by Village Capital with assistance from the Moody’s Foundation, attracted applicants from 22 different African nations. The final cohort included 10 startups from Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.
As the startups get ready to scale up, Village Capital will offer expert training sessions that will help them improve their sustainability solutions, increase their investment readiness, and gain access to the organization’s extensive network of investors.
Three of the selected startups are based in Kenya: Inno-Neat Energy Solutions, a provider of off-grid clean energy solutions; Octavia Carbon, a company that develops Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology to stop climate change and put an end to the fossil fuel era; and Organic Fields, a company that collects biodegradable food waste and uses controlled composting to turn it into organic fertilizer.
The two organizations that represent Uganda are Hydroponics Gardens Masaka, which produces hydroponic gardens for women and smallholder farmers in urban and rural areas, and Akatale On Cloud, which uses Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae to convert vegetables, fruits, and waste from slaughterhouses into animal feed and organic fertilizer.
Two startups from Nigeria are also included in the cohort: Integrated Aerial Precision, a company that provides agricultural drone technology and data analytics services, and D-Olivette Enterprise, a company that designs and sells biodigesters known as Bio-tanks that produce biogas, fertilizer, and animal feed for smallholder farmers and agrarian communities.
Other organizations chosen include Sierra Leone’s Women in Energy, which empowers women, girls, and youth to manufacture smart green stoves and green briquettes from recycled agricultural waste, Zambia’s Fourth Line, which enables smallholder farmers to produce honey and value-added products as a sustainable source of social and economic livelihood, South Africa’s Spek Tech, a digital platform that connects online consumers and businesses to carbon markets, and Zambia’s Fourth Line.
The selected startups will be taking part in online workshops to develop their capacity from August through September 2023. In order to scale their businesses and provide better support for entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa, the curriculum is geared toward assisting students in building the networks and resources they need.
To join Abaca, Village Capital’s online global network, all startups that apply to the program will be invited. The platform Abaca is used by incubators, accelerators, and organizations that support entrepreneurs to gauge, monitor, and analyze the progress of startups even in their earliest and most abstract stages.
