Berytech has officially announced the names of the fourteen (14) startups which have made it to the second phase of the Agrytech Accelerator Program. After two months of intensive bootcamp and market validation of their agri-food innovation, the startups are now going into the next phase to develop their minimum viable product and get traction.
Agrytech Bootcamp – Market Validation
2 months ago, 27 teams received a letter of acceptance to join Agrytech Accelerator Batch 2. Back then, these 82 participants, from different backgrounds and nationalities, came together for the very first time with a common goal: validate their market by the end of the first phase of the accelerator.
This phase started with a Bootcamp in which teams analyzed the problem they are tackling before working on their solution to make it more sustainable and develop their business model. Following this intensive 4-day workshop, the teams met on several occasions to study, analyze, validate their market and share their experiences and challenges with one another while being continuously shadowed by one-to-one coaching support from the Agrytech and Berytech teams. During the avant-premiere, in the last week, the teams faced “investors”. They were able to practice their pitches, receive feedback and validate their solution based on the advice from professionals in their fields.
Finally, after couple of months of intensive and hard work, the startups were evaluated during the selection day that took place early August in which a panel of jury members and the Agrytech team evaluated their improvement, development and commitment to their startup. They had to pitch in front of a panel of judges composed of Firas Ezzedine– Investment Manager at Cedar Mundi Ventures, Rodrigue El Balaa- Chairperson of the Department of Agriculture at the University of Balamand, Jean Bou Rjeily– Cofounder of CME offshore SAL, Bassel Aoun -Project Manager at Kafalat, Lucien Kazzi– Director at Teknologix Automation.
The jury evaluated the participants based on several criteria revolving around the uniqueness of the product, the criticality of the problem, how compelling the solution is, the market size and opportunity, the scalability of the model and the validation of the market.
Agrytech Acceleration – MVP & Traction
The efforts and hard work paid off for 14 startups out of 27 that were selected to join the second phase of the Agrytech Accelerator Program. The teams were welcomed to the next phase during an induction session that took place at the Berytech Innovation Park in Mar Roukoz in which they were introduced to their upcoming intensive schedule. During this next phase, the selected startups will receive technical support to build their MVP while building the company around it to launch into market. They will be undergoing several workshops such as product development, HR, marketing, sales, finance, raising capital, while receiving up to US$16,000 in grants to help them move forward to build a minimum viable product (MVP) and get traction over the period of 4 months.
Startups joining the acceleration phase include: Agronline, Agrymac, Atayeb El Jabal, Cubex, Digimart, Foodcheck, IOTree, Mushtic, Potopeel, Quadra, Rigino, Salim Organic Farm, Turista kit, and Waste to Power.
For more details about the selected startups visit this page.
Next Phase: Incubation
After the second phase, up to 8 teams will be selected for the third and final phase: the incubation. During this phase the selected startups will have to grow their startups over a period of 6 months while getting $22,000 in matching capital.
