Crop2Cash, an Agri-Tech startup which connects farmers with capital and markets, has emerged winner of the Nigerian edition of the Global Early-Stage Startup Competition, Seedstars, for 2019.
Medical Startup Doctoora, and e-commerce platform, Traders of Africa came second and third place respectively.
Out of many, 11 startups were selected to pitch their ideas at the 2019 event. The startups selected to pitch were capped based on certain criteria: they had to have launched less than 2 years ago, received less than $500 in funding and gained traction. At the newly launched Seedspace GrowthLabs in Lagos, was where they all converged, and where Crop2Cash edged the 10 other startups to win the competition.
Other startups that pitched at the event include: Asusu – a microfinance platform for the unbanked; Lucy.ng: a merchandise branding platform; Foodlocker – an e-commerce platform for agro-products; Pronob – a software-as-a-service startup; publishing platform Publiseer; Edtech Solution for the underprivileged, Edusko; and ecommerce platforms, Alerzo and One Kiosk Africa.
The Ibadan-based startup (Crop2Cash) having been launched in the year 2018, aids farmers to completely manage the end-to-end of their supply chain, connecting them to suppliers and industries. The startup possesses a digital banking service that provides farmers with opportunities to operate bank accounts with USSD codes and mobile apps. Its founders are Michael Ogundare, Emem Essien and Seyi Alabi.
Having emerged as the winner of the Lagos pitch competition, Crop2Cash gets to represent Nigeria at the Africa Regional Summit. If it gets to wins this, it gets the opportunity to pitch at the Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland with a chance to win $500,000 in equity funding as well as other prizes.
This will make it become the second Nigerian startup to win the prize following SimplePay in 2013.
In September 2018, the startup emerged winner of the Wennovation Hub Agri-Tech Incubation Startup Demo Day receiving the prize of $3,500.
