It is said, 

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.” 

 and for sure the Seeds for Sustainable Energy team did not end their journey on the bend but made a stop over to Kenya for their start-up road trip to Africa. The destination being the E4impact Entrepreneurship Center, Kenya offices in Nairobi. This was to be their home from the 2nd to the 5th of May, 2023 as they held their annual boot camp.

It was time for the irrepressible Kenyan entrepreneurs to showcase and pitch their agribusiness innovations.  The Seeds for sustainable energy is an initiative of the BeEntrepreneurs APS and Joule, Eni School of Entrepreneurship, in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in Nairobi. The program shortlisted  10 of the best startups in East Africa, Kenya with a focus on sustainable and innovative agriculture solutions.

The four-day intense boot camp kicked off with the entrepreneurs going through an exercise in purpose finding. 10 start-ups onboard the Kenyan tour were ready for action and to battle it out for the ultimate prize.

Armed with their impeccable pitch decks and unique ideas:  Koch Food Waste Management Champions, Cellubioclag Distilors, DroneCrops Ventures,  Farm IT, Shamba Pride, Agrotech Plus, Soil Doctors, Global Agricultural Solution, Marula Protein, and Lima started their journey of transformation from rookies to rockstars.

Entrepreneurs went through training cutting across design thinking, the art of pitching among many other areas, had exhibitions, and finally had their day of pitching.  With the pitch done the stage was set for an interesting face-off before an audience of relevant investors, Italian and Kenyan institution representatives, and successful Italian start-up founders.  

Came the last day came the time for the curtains to fall, and  2O+ jurors voted for the companies with the best growth potential. The vote was in favor of Farmer LifeLine Technologies, Farm IT, and Koch Food Waste Management Champions who took first to third positions respectively. The three start-ups received a grant prize of 10,000 € in services each. We here at the E4impact Entrepreneurship Center congratulate all start-ups that participated and wish them all the best. As the road trip sets off for another stopover, we say Asante Sana to all partners and Karibu Tena.

Gideon  Gachoki Kinyua 

Communication Assistant, E4Impact Entrepreneurship Center – Kenya.