South South Agriculture Alliance (SSAGA)

?? Innovating for Impact: Bridging Gaps & Unlocking Potential ?? The SSAGA launch event hosted a insightful panel discussion exploring the ground-level challenges and opportunities in driving innovation across agriculture. Our distinguished panelists shared their ground-level experiences and perspectives on the key barriers and solutions that can shape the future of innovation. ?? Catherine. W. Kilelu (Senior Research Fellow & Director, African Centre for Technology Studies) highlighted the critical need for increased funding for research and better support systems for market access and business models. Many innovations struggle to scale due to a lack of structured pathways that bridge research and commercial viability. ?? Laila Macharia (Founding Director, Aspen Initiative Africa) stressed upon the several risks and opportunities that enterprises venturing into new boundaries could face and how those can be catered to through strong community partnerships and local expertise. Cultural sensitivity and deep relationships with local founder teams are key to long-term success in South-South agricultural collaboration. ?? Jean Claude Uwizeyemungu (Managing Director, Mahwi Grain Millers) shed light on the risks of price volatility, which create uncertainties for businesses. With fluctuating market prices and fixed operating costs, managing working capital effectively becomes a major challenge for many enterprises. ??Onkar Pandey (Director, Social Alpha) echoed the need to develop an ecosystem of support services for entrepreneurs that can provide long-term solutions to these pressing challenges. Affordability of solutions also needs to be tackled for such solutions to scale. The conversation underscored a key takeaway: innovation alone is not enough—it must be backed by the right support structures, financing mechanisms, and strategic partnerships to create lasting impact. A huge thank you to our esteemed panelists and everyone who joined the discussion! Let’s continue working together to build a more inclusive and resilient innovation ecosystem. ?? What are your thoughts on tackling these challenges? Let’s keep the conversation going! #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Finance #MarketAccess Santosh K Singh Ankur Kathuria Amit Joshi Susmit Datta Anish Moda

?? Empowering Smallholder Farmers Through South-South Collaboration ?? At our recently launched South South Agriculture Alliance (SSAGA) platform in #Kigali, we hosted a compelling discussion that provided a broader understanding of the challenges of small-holder #farmers across the Global South and how South-South collaboration can benefit the overall ecosystem. Key Takeaways from the Panel: ?? Technology & Innovation: Collins Marita (Mercy Corps AgriFin) emphasized that digital tools are reshaping the agriculture sector, but scaling these solutions requires deep local adaptation and strong ecosystem partnerships to ensure they become relevant to the context. ?? Financing Gaps: Arindom Datta (Ex-Rabobank) highlighted that limited access to finance remains one of the biggest barriers to farmer income growth, with similar challenges seen across geographies. Concessional finance and technology can help balance the risks and the costs associated with providing financing to farmers. ?? Challenges for Agribusinesses: Marie Claire (Farmfresh Fine Foods Pty Ltd) pointed out that logistics, access to markets, and supply chain inefficiencies remain key hurdles for agribusinesses. Greater policy support and investment in infrastructure are essential for their success. ?? Scaling Innovations Across Borders:?Dr. Moses Osia Mwanje (Cereal Growers Association) shared insights on where agri-innovations succeed and where they often fail, advising innovators to prioritize farmer-centric approaches. ?? Where Should We Bet on Innovation? When asked about the one critical innovation that could significantly improve farmer incomes, the panelists pointed to climate-smart solutions, improved access to financing, and supply chain digitization as the most promising areas for transformation. ?? Moderated by Ankur Kathuria (Intellecap), this discussion highlighted the need for stronger partnerships between governments, private sector players, and innovators to unlock agriculture’s full potential. What’s Next? SSAGA is committed to advancing these dialogues and creating a platform for action.??? Stay tuned as we share more highlights and insights from the launch event. Follow us for more updates! #SSAGA #AgricultureInnovation #SmallholderFarmers #SouthSouthCollaboration #AgTech #Agribusiness #FinanceForFarmers #FoodSystems Susmit Datta Amit Joshi Anish Moda Santosh K Singh

At the recently concluded launch of the 'South South Agriculture Alliance' (SSAGA), supported by the Gates Foundation, 6 Rwandan enterprises were featured as high potential #agri innovators with solutions to disrupt not only Africa, but other regions of the Global South as well. They were: ??Afri-Farmers Market ??Aflakiosk Ltd ??Rwagasabo AgroTech Ltd ??Ishyo Foods Limited ??Kinvest Impact Foundation? ??Ubuzima Bwiza Iwacu The platform, setup by Intellecap, aims to benefit small-scale farmers by fostering innovations and collaboration across the Global South. For more information, reach out to [email protected] | [email protected]

#announcement The South South Agriculture Alliance (SSAGA), supported by the Gates Foundation, aims to “Benefit small-scale farmers by fostering innovations and collaboration across the Global South”. ? SSAGA was launched in Kigali, #Rwanda, on 28th?January 2025 in the august presence of Dr. Olivier KAMANA, Permanent secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Government of Rwanda and Shri. Mridu Pawan Das, High Commissioner of India to Rwanda. ? The SSAGA platform, grounded by Intellecap aims to... ? Foster?innovations in agriculture through collaboration across the global south? ?? Scale innovative #agritech enterprises by enabling?on-ground?support (local partnerships/mentorship) ?? Enable?exchange of knowledge on a continual basis across the ecosystem?? ???? Change lives of small-scale farmers by increasing their income For more information, you can reach out to [email protected] or [email protected]

The South-South Agriculture Alliance is pleased to announce Aceli Africa as one of its strategic partners. Aceli Africa brings extensive experience in mobilizing financing for higher-risk, high-impact market segments. It also facilitates technical assistance for agricultural SMEs at both the pre- and post-investment stages. This expertise will support SSAGA in advancing innovative solutions to benefit smallholder farmers across the Global South. ?????????? ?????????? ????????????? Aceli Africa (‘Aceli’) is a market catalyst building a competitive and inclusive market for agricultural SME lending. Aceli aims to mobilize $1.6 billion in private sector lending for agricultural SMEs in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia and Uganda by 2030. Aceli offers financial incentives to increase the risk appetite and defray lending costs of global and local financial institutions to make loans ranging from USD $15K-$1.5M to high-impact agricultural SMEs. Aceli’s incentives unlock lending to agri-SMEs that have limited access to finance and that improve farmer and worker livelihoods, advance gender and youth inclusion, contribute to food security and nutrition, and promote climate-smart, environmentally sustainable practices. Gates Foundation Intellecap Aceli Africa Marcella McClatchey Siddharth Chaturvedi Santosh K Singh Brian Milder Susmit Datta Amit Joshi Richard Midikira Martin Thuo Ankur Kathuria Anish Moda Amélie Desjardins

?????? ??????????-?????????? ?????????????????????? ???????????????? ???? ?????????????? ???? ???????????????? ThinkAg ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????????????????? ??????????????. Drawing from its vast experience of building a multi-stakeholder AgFoodTech network, nurturing partnerships and creating knowledge, ThinkAg will support the functioning of SSAGA as it attempts to bring to the fore innovative agritech solutions in service of smallholder farmers across the Global South. ?????????? ?????????????? ThinkAg, a Not-for-profit organization, is India’s leading AgFoodFin Tech Collaboratory platform bringing together Innovators, Corporates, Incubators / Accelerators, Investors, FPOs, policymakers, and other stakeholders of the ecosystem to improve the outcomes in Indian Food & Agriculture. The Vision is to enable rapid scale up of AgFoodFin innovations by building a multi-stakeholder network, nurturing partnerships and creating knowledge, that will accelerate investments and adoption of technology in the sector. Founded over 6 years ago, the platform is connected with over 2500 active AgFoodFin Tech startups and scale-ups in India ecosystem and overseas. Gates Foundation Intellecap ThinkAg Marcella McClatchey Siddharth Chaturvedi Santosh K Singh Hemendra Mathur Susmit Datta Abhijit Goswami Amit Joshi Ritu Verma Dr. Pallavi Tak Raman Ahuja Ram Kaundinya Ankur Kathuria Anish Moda Amélie Desjardins

The South-South Agriculture Alliance (SSAGA) is platform to promote collaboration in agriculture across geographies in the Global South to address challenges of small holder farmers. It will do so by providing support to innovative enterprises to scale across borders in the Global South, enabling exchange of knowledge and extending opportunities for networking and cross-learning among the relevant stakeholders of the ecosystem.? ? SSAGA will be unveiled to the agriculture ecosystem through a formal in-person invite-only launch event to be held?in Kigali, Rwanda on the 28th of January 2025. The event will be attended by distinguished people from several institutions including those from prominent donor agencies, development financial institutions, government entities, private sector, financial institutions, innovators etc. Please reach out to [email protected] or [email protected] for more details.??? More updates coming your way soon! Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Intellecap Marcella McClatchey Siddharth Chaturvedi Santosh K Singh Susmit Datta Amit Joshi Ankur Kathuria Anish Moda Amélie Desjardins

Intellecap with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is assisting five Indian agritech enterprises to expand in the target African countries of Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Following enterprises are being supported under this phase of the program:?? ?? ScaNxt provides climate-smart agriculture solutions to farmers. It has developed a mobile soil testing solutions kit for farmers named Bhu-Parikshak. Their focus country is?Rwanda and Tanzania.? ??WRMS Global builds climate resilience through two key lines of business viz, SecuRisk, a parametric insurance stack, and SecuSense, a weather data and agri-advisory stack. Their focus country is?Rwanda, Kenya & Tanzania.? ??Whrrl is a B2B2C Blockchain PaaS startup working in the arena of Warehouse Receipt Finance that helps Farmers, Traders & Producer Companies in raising working capital to tide over lengthy crop cycles ranging from 6-12 Months. Their focus country is?Kenya.? ??Prompt Innovations?is an innovative start-up in the field of energy efficiency and sustainability that provides solar/grid-powered milk chilling solutions for farmers. Their focus country is?Kenya.? ??SatSure uses technology to harness the power of high-resolution satellite imagery and existing open?datasets to deliver detailed analyses, historical trend tracking, and predictive insights, empowering?banks, agribusinesses, and government agencies to make informed decisions. Their focus country is?Kenya. ? The program is providing bespoke advisory + financial support to these enterprises to amplify and expand their solutions to farmers in Africa.?? Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Intellecap Marcella McClatchey Siddharth Chaturvedi Santosh K Singh Susmit Datta Ankur Kathuria Amit Joshi Anish Moda Amélie Desjardins Rajat Vardhan Anuj Kumbhat Ashish Anand Sudhindra Tatti Kumarjit Mazumder

Thrilled to have our initiative and participating enterprises featured at the Sankalp Forum Bharat Summit! Intellecap Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

?? ???????? ?????????? ???? ???????????? ?????????????????????????? ???? ?????????????????????? ???????????? ?????? ???????????? ????????????? Agricultural value chains across the Global South are often highly disintegrated and led by smallholder farmers. This leads to lesser-than-good incomes for farmers. Innovations and access to knowledge have tremendous potential to address some of the challenges faced by smallholder farmers.?? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is supporting Intellecap to implement the South-South Agriculture cooperation program to accelerate the collaboration to address smallholder farmers challenges across Global South. The program has two key objectives –?? ? Supporting five Indian agritech enterprises to scale in Africa, as part of Cohort 1?? ? Creating an institutional mechanism to support South-South collaboration in agricultural innovations in the future? To cater to the second objective, the South-South Agriculture Alliance (SSAGA) has been formed. SSAGA will continue to support the cause of South-South collaboration in Agriculture. The SSAGA is a platform for like-minded institutions to unite and foster innovation transfer in agriculture across the Global South.? Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Intellecap Marcella McClatchey Siddharth Chaturvedi Santosh K Singh Susmit Datta Ankur Kathuria Amit Joshi Amélie Desjardins Anish Moda Please reach out to [email protected] and /or [email protected] for more details.