Zimbabwe’s Agri-tech startup SMART Connect has emerged the winner of DEMO Africa Innovation tour held by Micah Foundation in Zimbabwe, Harare.
The startup presented a mobile-web application that links smallholder farmers to buyers, transporters and other agribusiness entities through an inclusive business model with a broader view of stimulating economic growth and improving livelihoods of people at the bottom of the pyramid.
Alongside the national winners of South Africa and Botswana innovation tours (yet to be held) SMART Connect will compete to win the regional spot having the winning team represent Southern Africa at the launch event to be held in Morocco on the 18th and 19th of October. The successful startups in each region will automatically qualify to be part of the pool of 30 where the successful Startups will be provided with resources worth over US$150,000 including US$120,000 software tools from Microsoft and USD$15 000 from AWS that to help them build and grow their businesses.
“We are very delighted to be the winners of this tour amongst other brilliant competitors. Agriculture is an important factor but often times people focus on the end users satisfaction and forget about the farmers at the bottom of the pyramid. SMART Connect is a product for our producers and the improvement of their livelihood is key to us.” Joseph Manzera of SMART Connect said.
Application for selection to the 2018 DEMO Africa cohort close on 15th July. Application is done online on the DEMOAfrica site at www.demo-africa.com
