2025 AYuTe Africa NextGen for African Agripreneurs

The AYuTe Africa NextGen, an initiative of Heifer International, was established in 2021 as an agribusiness innovation initiative designed to catalyze ground-up innovation that address challenges faced by smallholder farmers at scale, providing the incubation and catalytic financing needed for these businesses to scale. AYuTe (Agriculture, Youth and Technology) combines the power of African youth with the many possibilities of emerging technologies to support smallholder farmers across the continent grow their businesses and incomes.

At the core of the initiative is the AYuTe Challenge, a competition that identifies and enables young African entrepreneurs to develop and scale agtech solutions. Selected companies receive part of a $1.5 million catalytic grant, along with technical support to scale their solutions and expand their impact.

AYuTe Africa NextGen Champions must demonstrate that their innovations are market-tested, farmer-ready and poised to provide an impact that will cascade across the food systems of multiple countries. And most importantly, you must prove you can empower smallholder farmers with solutions that enable them to increase their income and improve their livelihoods.

• Table of Content
• About AYuTe Africa Challenge
• AYuTe Africa NextGen
• Requirements for AYuTe Africa NextGen Qualification
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About AYuTe Africa Challenge

The AYuTe Africa Challenge one of the most ambitious agriculture competitions on the continent. We envision combining the power of African youth with the many possibilities of emerging technologies to support smallholder farmers across Africa to grow their businesses and incomes—a transformative force we call AYuTe.

AYuTe Africa NextGen

Requirements for AYuTe Africa NextGen Qualification

To be considered for the regional AYuTe Africa NextGen, you must:

• Have a minimum of three years of experience working with smallholder farmers in Africa, with demonstrated impact on their revenue.
• Must be operating in one of the following sectors:
  • Access to Finance
  • Access to Market
  • Access to Energy
  • Climate Smart Solutions and Resilience
• Registered and operating in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Show your organization has a sustainable business model that will allow it to stay profitable as it expands operations to serve more smallholder farmers.
• Demonstrate that you are providing a truly innovative product or service, offering unique solutions rather than duplicates.
• Proven demand among smallholder farmers and affordability.

Application Deadline

How to Apply

For more details, visit AYuTe Africa program webpage