The Milken Institute and the Motsepe Basis (https://www.MotsepeFoundation.org/) in the present day introduced the winners of the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech, the primary of a collection of multiyear, multimillion-dollar innovation competitions and packages to advance technological progress towards the UN Sustainable Growth Targets (SDGs). The prizes had been awarded on the Milken Institute World Convention in Los Angeles, California.
NovFeed (https://NovFeed.com/), a biotech firm primarily based in Tanzania, was awarded the $1 million grand prize for its proprietary know-how to upcycle natural waste into nutritious, sustainable, and traceable plant-based protein substances and concentrated pure biofertilizer for the meals system.
The $300,000 award for second place was introduced to Karpolax (https://www.Karpolax.com/), a Uganda-based firm, for its nanotechnology answer that helps fruit and veggies keep recent longer with out shedding dietary worth. The $150,000 award for third place was introduced to IRRI-AfricaRice (https://apo-opa.data/44e70Pc) for its biotech innovation to assist rice farmers shield their crops from flooding, one of the damaging results of local weather change.
Bonus prizes of $100,000 every had been additionally introduced. Kuronga (https://Kuronga.com/), primarily based in South Africa, took the bonus prize for many artistic use of Fourth Industrial Revolution applied sciences for its machine studying and machine imaginative and prescient cellular app, utilizing AI to attach farmers with patrons and making it simpler to validate high quality of crops. COOL LION (https://CoolLionenergies.com/), a Côte d’Ivoire-based start-up that gives cooling-as-a-service options for various industries (agriculture, fisheries, and so forth.) and powered by renewable vitality, took house the Folks’s Alternative bonus prize for probably the most transformative concept in line with the general public.
“Various options had been thought-about through the competitors, and this contributes to present and future efforts to grasp and resolve challenges dealing with agriculture,” mentioned Dr. Treasured Moloi-Motsepe, co-founder and CEO of the Motsepe Basis. “Making progress in direction of the SDGs is essential. We’re really impressed by the individuals’ concepts and thank every of them for his or her dedication to discovering viable and scalable options.”
“The winners exemplify the truth that daring, scalable, transformative concepts can come from wherever,” mentioned Dr. Emily Musil Church, senior director on the Milken Institute Middle for Strategic Philanthropy. “Bringing expertise to the fore and supporting entrepreneurs is an intentional purpose of the competitors. It doesn’t finish there. The expanded community of traders and stakeholders constructed into this system affords the profitable groups continued alternatives to innovate and thrive.”
After launching the competitors in April 2021, greater than 3,300 individuals from 105 nations throughout six continents registered for the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech. An unbiased panel of knowledgeable judges rigorously chosen 25 finalist groups to obtain $10,000 to develop and take a look at their improvements to enhance financial worth for small and medium-sized farms in Africa. Every of the groups took half in a rigorous, unbiased judging course of (https://apo-opa.data/3AEbUrc), which assessed their innovation’s potential to extend farm productiveness and/or lower post-harvest loss.
Groups additionally obtained quite a lot of particular advantages, together with participation in a tuition-free, experiential studying program supplied by World Innovation Catalyst in collaboration with Stanford On-line, the place they obtained mentoring from trade consultants, pitch teaching, and suggestions periods.
The Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize Program has continued to develop, launching a second competitors, the Milken-Motsepe Prize in Inexperienced Power (https://apo-opa.data/3oMzJu4) in November 2022. The Prize in Inexperienced Power is a $2 million innovation competitors to reward entrepreneurs and innovators who develop entry to dependable, inexpensive, and sustainable electrical energy in Africa.
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