The GSMA Innovation Fund for Digitisation of Agricultural Value Chains

Deadline: 31 July 2019

Applications are open for The GSMA Innovation Fund for Digitisation of Agricultural Value Chains that aims to scale digital solutions for the agricultural last mile and improve smallholders’ financial inclusion, livelihood and climate resilience.   The Fund prioritises enterprise services targeted at organisations (e.g. agribusiness, cooperatives, etc.) procuring from smallholders with the focus on those living on less than USD 2 per day.   Categories

• Mobile money driven category
• Data driven category

Funding Information   Up to eight grants of £220,000 each are being made available to support projects of 24 months duration.   Eligibility Criteria

• The innovation fund is open to lead applicants operating in, and intending to implement their project, countries in Asia and Africa.
• The Fund will award up to eight grants in total across two categories:
  • MOBILE MONEY DRIVEN CATEGORY
    • Open to mobile money providers in partnership with AgriTech vendors who are developing, implementing, launching and/ or scaling enterprise services (B2B2C) which digitise the agricultural last mile procurement and communication with smallholders.
    • The proposed development or evolution of an enterprise service must include the following primary use-cases:
      • Digitising procurement records and smallholder farmer profiles (static and dynamic information);
      • Digitising payments to smallholder farmers via mobile money;
      • Digitising communication and providing advisory services for smallholder farmers.
    • This mobile money driven category is open to applicants who intend to deploy or scale their services in the following countries:
      • Africa: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
      • Asia: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.
  • DATA DRIVEN CATEGORY
    • Open to AgriTech organisations who have already scaled a last mile agriculture digitisation service and established a model for generating digital farmer records and explored linking farmer records with financial service providers. The proposed evolution of these services must include the following primary use-cases:
      • Digitising procurement records and smallholder farmer profiles (static and dynamic information) at a scale of at least 50,000 farmers in the proposed market;
      • Using existing deployment data and digital records of smallholder farmers to provide financial inclusion services through partnerships with third-party organisations;
      • Digitising communication and providing advisory services for smallholder farmers.
    • This data driven category is open to applicants who intend to deploy their services in countries with limited mobile money ecosystem in rural areas, specifically:
      • Africa: Ethiopia, Nigeria.
      • Asia: Indonesia

How to Apply

• Applications for funding across both categories are assessed through a two-stage application process.
  • Concept Note
  • Business Plan
• Interested applicants can apply online via the given website.

For more information, please visit GSMA Innovation Fund.