Yunus Environment Hub launches GrowUp Incubator Program

Deadline: 21-Nov-21

The Yunus Environment Hub has launched a 2022 cohort of their GrowUp Incubator for social businesses to support and grow skills on early-stage entrepreneurs who have proven their concept and are looking for support on how to scale their social business and become self-sustainable.

Their GrowUp Incubator focuses on supporting and advancing innovative solutions that have the potential to create substantial environmental and social impact. They’re providing key support to social business entrepreneurs in post-revenue stage. Incubates of GrowUp will receive tailored mentorship based on their needs, interactive capacity building workshops and networking opportunities with local partners and peer-to-peer support to share challenges and discover solutions.

Agriculture and food sector has enormous environmental and social footprint in East Africa as well as it is a proven engine for poverty reduction, with about 80% of the region’s population living in rural areas and depending on it for their livelihood. With their 2022 cohort of GrowUp Incubator they will address East Africa’s transformation towards sustainable food systems to enable sustainable agricultural production and support sustainable practices along the whole food value chain; to mitigate climate change and build resilient communities; to encourage renaissance of rural territories; and to enable availability of nutritious and healthy food for the local population.

At the end, they will have identified how to:

Refine its partnerships and operational model
Analyse the product-market fit for multiple contexts
Find viable routes to scale and grow
Integrate impact evaluation into the operational model
Identify financial sustainability model and financial opportunities
Topics

Processing and Packaging
Preparation and Consumption
Disposal and Food Waste Recovery
Production Growing and Harvesting
Aggregation, Distribution, Marketing and Sales
Benefits

During the 6-month program, entrepreneurs will receive:
Interactive capacity-building bootcamp
Bi-weekly tailored mentorship
Capacity building trainings
Networking opportunities
Peer-to-peer support
Eligibility Criteria

The cohort will support social business entrepreneurs in Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi.
To apply for 2022 cohort, your social business should:
Be located in one of their target countries in East Africa
Solve a challenge within one or more thematic areas related to food systems.
Be beyond experimentation stage
Have their product/service on the market for 6 months – 3 years
Be legally registered or planning on doing it during the incubation program
Be led by a person or by the community (cooperative model)
Be able to demonstrate substantial environmental and social impact
Be in pre-seed investment but post-revenue stage
Have accumulated sales to date of approx. $10,000 – $25,000 USD (Not necessarily profitable yet)
Have 2-3 people from the team who will participate in the program
Have regular access to stable internet to participate in mentoring sessions and cohort events
For more information, visit https://yunusenvironmenthub.com/growup-incubator/