news - FMO and Endeavor Extend Partnership with AfricaGrow for the Second African Agritech Cohort

Endeavor and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, are pleased to announce the continuation of its partnership to empower a second cohort of early stage African agritech ventures. The new 'African Agritech Accelerator’ program, scheduled to commence in January 2024, builds on the success and learnings of the first cohort (Feb 2022 – Feb 2023).

This program is set to address growth challenges encountered by agritech startups across Africa, while extending the scope of the cohort to agri-adjactent tech start-ups. Through Endeavor’s tailored mentoring approach and extensive network, entrepreneurs will be connected to subject-matter and industry experts as well as investors, helping them to become “investment-ready” and ultimately promoting development of the pre-eminent agritech sector on the continent.

When asked about the impact of the initial program in 2022, Betrand Foffe, co-founder & CEO of Jangolo responded with the following statement: “The greatest learning of the program is that we learnt that we had the wrong business model – we were able to then rebuild our foundation and realign our team. Now our model has a 10x potential; Our processes are documented, resilient, and optimized; our team is up to speed and autonomous; and within half a year, our sales have grown (and continue to grow) by +200% month to month. We are very grateful to FMO and Endeavor South Africa for the impact that this program has had on our business.”

Founded in 1997, Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for high-impact entrepreneurs. With over 40 offices around the world, and six across Africa, Endeavor boasts a global network, comprising over 5,000 mentors and 500 growth investors, and 2,200 high-impact entrepreneurs. Predicated on the idea of paying-it-forward, Endeavor’s mission is to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world by inspiring high-growth entrepreneurs to dream bigger while supporting and investing in them to scale faster, and providing a platform to give back to the network.

In addition to FMO’s support, AfricaGrow has joined as a co-funder for the program, demonstrating a joint commitment to strengthening the agritech industry in Africa by actively growing the pipeline of investable ventures, and attracting more local, regional, global investors, which are critical to reach scale.

Alison Collier, Managing Director of Endeavor SA, shared her enthusiasm: "It’s wonderful for Endeavor to be joining forces with FMO and AfricaGrow and work together to drive growth in the Agritech sector of Africa – enhancing food security and driving local revenue and job growth across the continent. We are excited to continue our work with promising African agritechs – connecting them to founders, investors and mentors in Endeavor’s global network and accelerating their growth.”

This project is funded through the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Building component of the FMO Ventures Program Technical Assistance Facility, co-funded by the Dutch Government and European Union. This component seeks to foster the maturity of the venture capital sector in targeted emerging markets by improving services of incubators, accelerators and other entrepreneurial support organizations, as well as enabling more early-stage financing for ventures.

“Providing more investment readiness services for scaling businesses is critical in growing the agritech sector across Africa, so we are eager to collaborate with Endeavor and AfricaGrow to provide tailored support to another cohort of promising ventures in one of our key sectors,” indicated Marieke Roestenberg, FMO Ventures Program Manager.

About Endeavour

Endeavour SA is a non-profit company focused on driving inclusive growth and job creation through its support of "high-growth entrepreneurs" - specifically in lesser developed markets leveraging its strong pro-bono global network of entrepreneurs, teams, mentors, and investors. For more information about Endeavor SA, please visit: https://endeavor.co.za

About AfricaGrow

AfricaGrow is a fund of funds domiciled in Germany, which aims to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups on the African continent by investing in pan-African regional and country-specific private equity and venture capital funds with proven track records and capacities. The Fund intends to have a catalytic effect on the emerging and dynamic African SME and start-up ecosystem, and thus contribute to the promotion of jobs and income, as well as strengthening sustainable economic growth. As a legally independent entity, AfricaGrow is a central instrument of the Compact with Africa (CwA) initiative, which was launched in 2017 under the 50 German G20 presidency. The technical assistance facility is funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), while the fund is managed by Allianz Global Investors and advised by DEG Impact GmbH.