We feel privileged and honored to announce that one of our blockchain-based products, AgriClear was declared winner in UNCDF’s Nepal Innovation Challenge - AgriTech 2019. It is a matter of pride for the eSatya team and a huge win for blockchain.

The challenge

The first-ever Nepal Innovation Challenge-AgriTECH, which is part of the global Financial Innovation Lab Initiative run by the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) was announced on April 29 by UNCDF. The challenge was hosted in collaboration with NEXT Venture Corp. and Idea4Scale. The objective behind hosting this challenge was to support innovators and existing start-up companies ideate, innovate and implement technology-driven solutions for smallholder farmers and the private sector companies serving them.The challenge received a total of 123 registrations and 69 final submissions from start-ups companies, FinTechs and pre-seed stage teams.  The ideas were profiled and assessed by a panel of independent evaluators sustainability in terms of potential impact, of the proposed idea, uniqueness and creativity of the solutions offered.

The panel shortlisted 21 out of 69 teams who then proceeded to the interview round. During this round, the judges had a one-on-one session with each team and chose the 8 finalists who would proceed to the bootcamp phase.

On May 27, 2019, top 10 finalists for the challenge were announced.

Bootcamp Phase

Next,  the bootcamp phase, the top 10 finalists went through a series of training, workshops and field visits to better understand the agricultural sector in Nepal.  The two bootcamps of the AgriTECH Challenge were designed to help the participants work on their business plan by focusing on their target segment and putting it at the heart of their thinking. The objective of the first bootcamp was to help the teams finalize their business model canvas. The sessions were moderated by agri-entrepreneurs, tech giants and industry experts of Nepal. This provided the participants an opportunity to hear about the success and more importantly failure stories of the people working in this sector. This exchange program helped the participants understand the existing challenges in the sector and ways in which they can navigate around it.

After the bootcamp phase, a mentor was assigned to each team. The teams would frequently visit their respective mentors and work on the feedback and suggestions provided by the mentors. Before the grand finale, Next Venture Corp scheduled an event where the finalists were given an opportunity to pitch their ideas before the remaining team.

Demo Day

The big day, the grand finale was held on September 30 at Hotel Aloft Kathmandu. Potential Investors, entrepreneurs, agri-experts,  businessmen and members from different government and non-governmental organizations attended the event Each team was provided with a stall to exhibit their products and ideas. On an auditorium, the teams pitched their business solution to a panel of jury. The jury then closely evaluated and assessed the ideas and declared Mizani and AgriClear as the winners of the challenge. 

The 2 winners will receive a grant up to USD30,000 and 1 year of technical assistance from UNCDF to pilot their idea. 

Sources - UNCDF, Next Venture Corp