Finture Solutions is an initiative by FMO in collaboration with Rockstart to support Dutch startups and scale-ups that bring positive change in emerging markets across the world in the fields of AgriTech, Clean Energy, and Health. After an extensive selection process with more than 80 applicants, FMO and Rockstart selected 10 startups that are in the running to be one of the five winners of €125,000 development capital and support from FMO experts.
This year is the second edition of Finture Solutions and quite soon after the kick off meeting in March, COVID19 was impacting our original plans to do the live event. It is important to FMO and Rockstart to continue and support startups in these uncertain times. Therefore, we decided that Finture would go Digital!
The Finals event will take place on the 18th of June and we have some spots for the ones interested in seeing the startups pitches. You can register now. With the help of FMO, Rockstart and external experts, we have now chosen the top 10 finalists and here they are!
Fossil fuel based boat propulsion is inefficient, expensive and highly polluting. On Lake Victoria in East Africa most of the 30 000+ fishers spend a disproportionate amount of their income on fuel for these engines. That is why Asobo provides electric outboard engines that are powered by renewable energy, and currently they are offering a full service basis to the fishers on Lake Victoria, Kenya. This will allow the fishers to use clean energy, also at a lower cost.
There are several countries where cooling is one of the largest struggles, as there is interrupted and limited power to supply. When there is no power there is no cooling – which can lead to huge losses of perishable goods and medicine. Coolfinity has designed an energy efficient fridge that only needs 6 hours of power a day to cool for 24 hours under harsh tropical conditions, and the fridge is designed to run on solar panels (off grid)! This allows for reliable cooling ensuring that goods and medicines are put to good use.
Onshore solar – the cheapest renewable energy today – is very limited in densely populated areas of the world due to spatial requirements. Placing solar offshore mitigates the spatial constraint, but leads to additional offshore-related costs. However, Oceans Of Energy has designed and makes durable systems that operate in the harsh offshore environment at a cost that is lower than any non-renewable energy producing technology. This can allow for densely populated areas to have access to affordable clean energy.
In emerging markets where access to energy is not always reliable, the use of washing machines is unreliable. This resorts to solutions such as hand washing which is more time consuming and less effective. Acacia has designed the Solar Soaker which works with solar thermal radiation that heats up the wash solution to the point where stains, dirt and microbes are removed by enzymes and other detergents, without a need for handwashing. It also prevents the spread of infection. This means both health and laundry facilities can wash laundry feeling confident that the laundry is clean, and do it in a time efficient manner.
Access to healthcare is a significant issue for rural areas, as they are difficult and time consuming to reach. In addition, challenges on the ground can lead to a broken cold chain with medicine going to waste, and patients not receiving their medication. Therefore, Avy has developed wing drones that are dedicated to lifesaving missions with a focus on last mile medical delivery, with their solution they enable fast and reliable ways of delivering medication to people living in remote areas.
Mental disorder cases in Kenya continue to rise rapidly, and 90% of patients who are experiencing a mental disorder do not receive any care due to lack of professionals, high cost of care and stigma. Inuka is a digital mental health App and platform that bridges the accessibility and affordability barriers to quality mental health wellness in Kenya. On the platform, a client can take a wellbeing assessment, and is matched with a coach for sessions and practical solutions.
In absence of a sufficient number of doctors in many African countries and the lacking underlying infrastructure and financial barriers, Yapili focuses on technology that democratises access to quality care, empowers individuals and enables direct communication with licensed health professionals within and beyond the African borders. Yapili created an app that connects African health-seekers to health professionals worldwide.
The lack of access to information on certification and compliance when it comes to farmers in emerging markets, prevents these markets from increasing their economic value. AgriPlace helps farmers and farm groups more easily obtain certification and gather compliance information they need to deliver. AgriPlace Chain helps food & beverage companies to automatically collect information around compliance of farmers and other types of suppliers. This will increase visibility for the farmers with buyers in Europe and elsewhere.
In the supply chain of agriproducts producers at the origin, it often can be challenging for them to overcome the complexities of the structural barriers, which prevents them from gaining more value and more visibility to buyers. Therefore Almacena is working on an innovative, scalable and impactful solution to overcome such issues. Almacena is trading as a service to origin producers blending online marketplace with real world supply chain management to shorten the supply chain and de-risk trade to ultimately transfer more value and bargaining power to the producers. In the process, they digitise the supply chain and the commodity assets, starting with coffee, in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda.
Despite the penetration of mobile phones in rural areas worldwide, the potential to leverage it for crucial agronomic information dispersal and provision of valuable services remain mostly unexplored, especially in Ethiopia and Rwanda. Smart Farming develops easy to use offline platforms that serve as a knowledge-transfer mechanism from experts to smallholder farmers. Through user behavior tracking and complementing this with expert insight, crop/market models and sensor information customized reports for agri-service providers and project teams are generated. These can be tailored for M&E, Certification and project decision making.
We hope that these startups have sparked your interest, and if you are curious to know more, register for our Finture Solutions Finals day.
