The Abou Khater Amphitheatre USJ in Beirut hosted the Demo Day, the next phase of the Agrytech Accelerator program to support young entrepreneurs. Seventeen teams presented their innovative business decisions in front of industry experts, venture capitalists, fund managers, and the media. The Agrytech Program is a joint initiative by the Kingdom of The Netherlands and Berytech. Its main goals is to invest in startups with technology-based innovations in the agriculture and agro-food sectors.
The startups attended a 2-month Bootcamp, where they increased their knowledge in the field of businesses methodologies. They also met industry experts and investment professionals to expand their network and get valuable advice. Each of the participants received a grant of USD 3300. It has allowed them to proceed further with their business model validation, test the market and get customers’ feedback to define whether their product was viable.
Earlier in July, the young entrepreneurs presented their final pitches to a jury panel consisted of industry influencers, business angels, and technology experts. Only eleven of them proceeded to the next phase of the program. It included a 4-month acceleration period with USD 16,000 in grants. In addition to that, these eleven teams had the chance to present their solutions during the Demo Day. The rest of the participants from the previous phase also attended the event and the networking session.
The young companies who reached this stage include:
- 209 Lebanese Wine – an online market place for local wines
- ADTech – a solution that generates energy from biodegradable waste
- AgriHub – a platform for Lebanese farmers
- L’atelier du Miel – an app to connect honey producers and customers
- Drone Tech – a solution to streamline pest control practices
- Lifelab Biodesign – provides the smallest hydroponic modules in the world
- Agrysense – a platform for precision farming
- Easy Ready Hummus – a fresh hummus dispenser
- Makanat – a platform to connect the public and production facilities
- Mothers Cooking – connects customers to producers of home-made food
- SmartGourmet – prepares ready-to-eat sous-vide food
- Meka-Prep- makes the manoushe making process automated
- Starchy – an innovative way for bio coating for fruits
- Souk Baladi is a platform that connects farmers to the public
- Mountain Bite – online marketplace connecting rural to urban
- Na7le – an innovative way to collect the bee venom
The eleven teams will proceed further to the phase 3 of the competition. Up to eight teams will get USD 22,000 in funding and will go through a 6-month incubation and growth program.