THRIVE Africa Pitch Event

Opening Remarks

Dr. Gerald Shively
Associate Dean and Director of International Program in Agriculture, Purdue University

Panel Discussion

The Challenges and Opportunities for African Agri-Food in Today’s Digital Age

Moderator: Danny O’Brien, Managing Director of EMEA, THRIVE

Panelists:   Shari Rogge-Fidler, President and CEO, Farm Foundation
Steve Yaninek, Professor of Entomology & Invasion Biology,
Purdue University

Pitch events

• Foodlocker supplies farm produce and consumer goods to large buyers by using data science and demand-matching technologies to enable smallholder farmers to produce against certain demand and to upscale their productivity.
• Hydroponics Africa’s simplified hydroponic system enables farmers to produce both food crops and livestock fodder without the use of soil.
• Mamlaka seeks to eliminate inefficiencies in the supply of fresh produce by leveraging end-to-end technology along the supply chain to ensure better quality produce and better pricing for farmers and consumers.
• M-Shamba supports smallholder farmers in the production of safe, quality food and matches the supply from the farms with demand from vendors and distributors thus creating a ready market for farmers.
• 3DIMO provides livestock biometric identification to track and trace health abnormalities in animals using IR imagery and AI.

Judging and Announcement of Winner

• Danny O’Brien, Managing Director of EMEA at SVG Ventures/THRIVE
• Carin Gerhardt, Director of Corporate Innovation at SVG Ventures/THRIVE
• Kip Tom, Former U.S. Ambassador and farmer
• Steve Coulter, Senior Vice President, Koch Agronomic Services
• Ranveer Chandra, Managing Director, Research for Industry, Microsoft
• John McMurdy, Vice President of Innovation and Development, CropLife International