FINCA Ventures Prize Competition
SAVE THE DATE
2026 Pitch Competition
FINCA Ventures is hosting its third annual Prize Competition to fund early-stage companies driving innovation and impact.
Join us October 6, 2026 to hear from visionary leaders driving impact in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems and Fintech for Financial Inclusion.
Stay tuned for more information
on how to join virtually.
What is the FINCA Ventures Prize Competition?
The FINCA Ventures Prize Competition is an annual event that supports rising African entrepreneurs who are leveraging innovative technologies and designing disruptive business models to drive impact and innovation. Hosted by FINCA Ventures, the Prize Competition brings together early-stage companies and visionary leaders, donors and investors who are passionate about entrepreneurship.
Meet the 2026 Finalists
Pollen Patrollers is Africa’s first precision pollination company, combining solar-powered IoT smart hive technology and AI-driven pollination services to help smallholder farmers and beekeepers increase crop yields by up to 50%, reduce bee colony collapse, and build more resilient food systems across East Africa. Through their farmer certification programme, they also connect smallholders to premium markets, opening new income pathways that go beyond the farm gate.
Kumbatia Seafood is a Mombasa-based, integrated seafood company that sources, finances, and distributes sustainably caught, artisanal fish from small-scale fishing communities along Kenya’s Swahili Coast. Combining fisher financing, cold chain logistics, export-grade processing, and full digital traceability, Kumbatia Seafood connects underserved coastal fishers to premium markets while protecting the marine ecosystems they depend on. Alongside its commercial operations, Kumbatia runs a fisheries development and advisory division that designs systems-based fisheries development programs across Africa in partnership with governments, NGOs, development finance institutions, and private-sector operators.
eAgro builds AI infrastructure that works without internet, enabling farmers in rural communities to access real-time agricultural guidance through basic mobile phones. Delivering accessible solutions for farmers, agribusinesses, and development partners and blending AI, satellite analytics, soil science, and localized advisory systems, eAgro helps farmers improve yields, reduce losses, and strengthen climate resilience across Africa.
nesti is turning rent into a credit building tool. The platform converts rent payments into a verified RentScore that unlocks fair credit and home ownership.
VunaPay is a digital finance platform building last-mile payment and credit infrastructure for agricultural value chains across Africa, enabling instant digital payments to smallholder farmers through cooperatives solving the challenge of delayed payments. By combining this with credit solutions, we ensure farmers are paid immediately, while improving transparency, efficiency, and access to formal financial services.
ChatCash is an AI conversational operating system that turns WhatsApp into automated storefronts with native, interactive payment buttons for African micro-merchants.
Interested in Sponsoring the Competition?
We invite you to be a catalyst for change by supporting the next generation of impactful entrepreneurs. Partners help directly fuel the growth of groundbreaking ventures, helping them scale and drive meaningful, lasting change.
2025 Competition
Watch the 2025 Highlights:
2025 Winners
truQ is a platform for small-scale transporters in Africa to access credit, automate their operations, get discounted expenses and increase their income.
Cladfy is a Kenyan fintech building last-mile lending infrastructure for the informal sector. It enables microlenders to lend to underserved segments sustainably, by automating credit profiling, streamlining loan management, and connecting them to loan book financing.
10mg Health is closing Africa’s $60 billion healthcare credit gap by providing clinics and pharmacies with instant, collateral-free loans using AI-powered credit scoring. Their platform analyzes real-time purchase and repayment data to generate credit decisions in seconds — reducing loan wait times from months to minutes.
Farmer Lifeline Technologies is a company that has developed solar-powered AI devices that leverage machine learning to detect crop pests and diseases directly from farm fields. Through their device, Farmer Lifeline helps reduce agricultural losses, improve crop yields, and build resilience.
Silo Africa is a climate-smart agri-tech company based in Kenya. Their flagship innovation is a digitally enabled hermetic storage system that reduces post-harvest grain losses by up to 40%. Through their integrated SiloCloud platform, farmers gain access to market insights and are directly connected to bulk buyers—enabling collective sales, transparent pricing, and improved incomes.
Karpolax is a company tackling food waste by helping fruits last longer without the need for cold storage. They’ve developed a simple, natural sachet made from plant-based compounds that slows down ripening and spoilage in fruits. Their solution is affordable, chemical-free, and easy to use, making it ideal for smallholder farmers, traders, and exporters.
2025 Awards Ceremony Highlights
Why Africa? Why Now?
Watch the opening remarks from FINCA Ventures Managing Director Winnie Mwangi.
The Impact of Grant Funding
Hear from two of the 2025 FINCA Ventures Prize finalists on the importance and impact of catalytic grant funding for entrepreneurs.
2024 Competition
“Thank you for your belief in the power of entrepreneurship to change the world. And obviously reducing healthcare costs is something that we are going to have to do together. So as entrepreneurs, as organizations like FINCA, you know, they are creating a movement. And a movement is what we need because the “I do it alone” approach will not work.”
– NAOM MONARI, FOUNDER OF BENA CARE, FV PRIZE 2024 WINNER
Kazi Yetu is a women-led agribusiness that sources herbs, teas, and spices from farms in Tanzania. They process, blend, and pack the teas in an all-women run factory, creating a range of ethically sourced and traceable products.
Neopenda develops needs-based medical technology for emerging markets. The company’s first product, neoGuard, is a wearable vitals monitor that helps alert clinicians of patients in distress.
Rio Fish operates in the fish value chain and collaborates with smallholder fish farmers to enhance production efficiency and provide them access to the market. Rio Fish also has a heavy focus on empowering underserved members of the community.
Bena Care provides accessible and affordable healthcare to low-income communities across Kenya. To achieve this, they’ve built a large network of healthcare workers who, through their mobile app, are connected to patients closest to them.
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