Eight startups, part of Batch III, have made it to the last phase of Berytech’s Agrytech Accelerator Program, the incubation and growth phase. These innovative entrepreneurs have taken up the challenge of completing their acceleration period and launching their agri-food startup in very difficult times. We’re excited to present them to you in quick one-on-one articles that zoom in on their solutions, the barriers they have encountered, and all the hard work they have done to move forward.
FX Bar
“Our journey with Berytech has been life-changing. In 9 months, we were able to transform a simple idea to a continuously improving MVP and were able to validate the need for our solution. With the help of Agrytech’s team, we were able to organize our work, acquire new skills, monitor our progress, and get concrete advice to improve our performance. The team also helped us always push forward and challenged us on many levels to bring out the best version of both ourselves and our product!” – Co-founder Sasha Abdel Sater. Read the full article on this link.
Ground Vertical Farming
“The Agrytech Accelerator program packs in so much information from the years of experience and skills that each mentor has amassed. This concentrated form of information allowed us to speed up what we are doing with our startup. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we are leveraging their years of accumulated wisdom to launch our startup in a more calculated, strategic way. This can improve our chances of success.” – Co-founders Mitri Harmouche and Rita Asmar Harmouche. Read the full article on this link.
Luxeed Robotics
“We have signed six letters of intent with farmers who are willing to buy our service once the machine is ready and fully tested. We succeeded in building the Proof of Concept, validating our market, and establishing a good relationship with a few of our potential customers throughout the program. Despite the exceptional times in Lebanon and thanks to the Agrytech program team and Berytech, we still have our funding, so the economic crisis is not affecting our startup development.” – Co-founders Guadaluna Chaer, Fabio Bou Habib and Georgy Kassab. Read the full article on this link.
Smart Land
“We got traction from farmers and we signed 8 MOUs so far. We learned how to go to the market with our product and the way to sell it, we learned how to create a successful company and how to work with the current crises, and finally, we learned how to develop our business. The key success factor is: have a product, make traction, signing MOUs, sell our first system, and brand awareness. Our best achievement is that we managed to sell our first system because the feedback of the client proved the importance of our solution.” – Co-founders Khaled Alabbass and Saad Alabbass. Read the full article on this link.
Karya
“We have shifted our value proposition to sell only experiences, and then optimize these experiences into food and/or rooms. We have also finalized the phone application and made it available. We also have developed an understanding of the countries of the Mediterranean basin in which we want to scale. One of our key success factors is the structured way in which we are now working that affected more efficiently our decision making.” – Co-founders Serge Atallah, Michel Feghaly, and Nicolas Gholam. Read the full article on this link.
The BeeHaus
“Today, 9 months into the accelerator, we have finished our hardware and mobile app based on the interviewed beekeepers and their feedback. Our key success factor is that our solution is always focused on our clients’ needs, concerns, and demands. Our greatest achievement is that we are still going forward with our startup despite all that is going around us in this country.” – Co-founders Nagi Abdel Nour and Yazid Boustani. Read the full article on this link.
Food Sight
“Starting Phase I of the program in October 2019, in parallel with the Lebanese Revolution, was a push for us since we believe that change is needed, and it starts with each one of us building solutions answering to current problems. During the first 2 months, we were able to have a deeper look into the market, the pain points of the food chain stakeholders and their needs, to validate our idea and to build a prototype.” – Co-founders Fidele El Achkar and Nathalie Nasr. Read the full article on this link.
Mezz’Mix
“We have achieved so much since we started the program. First, we were able to collect the real needs of the consumers through the interviews we conducted in line with the design-thinking methodology. The insights we collected were very helpful in the development of our product. As a second achievement and the most important one, we were able to launch our product in the market a few months ago with the help of the Agrytech team and as per the roadmap that was set for us.” – Co-founders Nemer Mansour, Maria Nehme and Nicolas Mansour. Read the full article on this link.
Agri-Food Innovation Day 2020
You will be able to virtually meet the eight startups during the second edition of the Agri-Food Innovation, scheduled on Thursday, October 1, 2020 from 2:00pm-6:00pm. Click here to find out more.
