Opportunity knocking: The GIZ Accelerator Program for Climate Change Innovations
Application Deadline: March 25th, 2022
The GIZ Accelerator program for Climate Change Innovations is looking for early-stage companies in Benin, Cameroon, and Niger that deliver digital solutions to combat climate change. We are looking for innovative and impactful tech-based solutions to either tackle the adverse effects or minimize the negative impact of climate change.
This program is open to startups using and leveraging digital technologies directly in their solution or in their operations in the following fields:
| Countries thematics | Benin | Cameroon | Niger |
| Water & soil management for agriculture & WASH in relation to agricultural production and to access to essential services such as health, sanitation and/or hygiene services | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agritech solutions to deal with the consequences of climate change, to support farmers thanks to weather forecasting services/alerts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Clean energy solar or bio gas energy for private or business use, digital solutions enabling access to energy in the most remote areas | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Last-mile distribution of essential goods & services (energy, water, health) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Protection of biodiversity & natural resources (coastline, wetland, mangroves, savannah, forests) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Access to markets for agricultural goods transport solutions, farming as a service for large buyers (retailers, restaurants, ..) | Yes | No | No |
| Air, land and water pollution (due to transportation, wood-burning, garbage burning, indoors fuel or wood stoves, but also plastic or e-waste pollution) | Yes | No | No |
Eligibility Criteria
This program is open to climate-focused technology startups meeting the following criteria:
- Officially incorporated, registered with the local chamber of commerce in the country or in the process of being registered
- Delivering a technology and/or digital solution to accelerate the deployment of climate solutions at scale
- Existing solution on the market (at least proof of concept, minimum viable product) on one of the above mentioned themes which has the capacity to scale
- The product or service attracts its first customers and shows initial interest from clients (BtoB or BtoC) or investors/donors.
- Founder and its core team members must be available and committed to join all program elements (including monitoring and evaluation questionnaires)
- At least one of the founders is originated from Benin, Cameroon, Niger
- Although this is not a selection criteria, attention will be given to teams committed to promote diversity and inclusion in their venture
Benefits:
- The major component of this program will be thementorship and technical project supportwith
- The involvement of anexperienced business mentor for a period of 6 months
- Learningbest practices from business experts to grow your business and your team
- The selected companies will beexposed to corporate partners and investors to attract potentialbusiness opportunities and investments.
- Collaboration with the in-country GIZ’s Digital Transformation Centers will help the foundersto further grow their business and scale at local and regional levels
- Finalists will have ampleopportunities to network with local and regional startup founders
- During a closing program event, 10.000 euro in grant funding will be shared across the 3 finalists per country.
Companies should be able to demonstrate at least a proof of concept, a prototype and first traction in the market.This call for applications is not open to companies who are still in the idea stage.
In each of the three countries, a maximum of three early-stage companies will be selected to join the program, making a cohort of nine companies in total. After a needs assessment, these companies will receive tailor-made technical support, coordinated by our in-country partners Etrilabs (Benin), ActivSpaces (Cameroon), and CIPMEN (Niger).
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the GIZ Accelerator Program for Climate Change Innovations
