San Jose, 30 January 2025 (IICA) – Endeavor Argentina and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will join forces to spur the development and magnify the impact of AgTech entrepreneurs in the Americas.
Under the partnership, these organizations will develop the Agtech Accelerator training program, to benefit startups working to provide technological solutions to foster agricultural productivity and sustainability. The program is based on Endeavor’s prestigious HIT (High-Impact Training) program, but with an exclusive focus on entrepreneurs in the Americas whose work is related to agricultural production.
Endeavor is the world’s largest community of high-impact entrepreneurs. With a presence in more than forty countries, it brings together the top leaders of technological companies. The organization selects entrepreneurs with the greatest potential, providing training and networking to help them to scale up operations and transforming them into models for upcoming generations.
IICA’s Digitalization Program will spearhead the Agtech Accelerator initiative with the aim of strengthening the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to promote better digital solutions and to help to consolidate technology-based agricultural enterprises.
The training program, which will be free of cost for the AgTechs selected to participate, was formalized via a memorandum of understanding signed at the IICA Argentina office in Buenos Aires by the legal representative of Endeavor Argentina, Rodolfo Massimino, and the Director General of the specialized organization in agricultural development, Manuel Otero.
Jorge Werthein, Special Advisor to the General Directorate of IICA; the Manager of the Digitalization Program, Federico Bert; and the Representative of the IICA Office in Argentina, Fernando Camargo, were present at the signing of the agreement. Also in attendance were María José Soler, Manager of Endeavor in Rosario and Inés Agote, Institutional Relations Lead.
Open call
The Endeavor Argentina-IICA program will target entrepreneurs of different established technology companies. The call for participants will be open until 16 February and can be accessed at the following link: https://www.endeavor.org.ar/programas/agtech-accelerator/
The initiative will include a series of six sessions with specialists in areas such as business plan preparation, communication and investment management, in addition to providing advice on any identified areas of weakness in these businesses.
The competitive process will select 20 AgTechs from at least 10 different countries to participate and the companies will be chosen according to the potential impact of their digital solution and the commitment of the entrepreneurial team. The process will also aim to choose entrepreneurs from the widest number of countries possible.
Training will be conducted online every two weeks during the months of March and April. The selected AgTechs will become members of the IICA Network and will have the opportunity to participate in IICA’s now classic Digital Agriculture Week.
Manuel Otero, the Director General of IICA, noted that, “Most digital solutions in the Americas are developed and provided by entrepreneurial teams, which are mainly young people. Assisting these entrepreneurs to perfect their value proposal and consolidate their businesses is a means of ensuring more and better technological solutions for farmers and other workers in agricultural systems”.
IICA and its partners have been organizing Digital Agriculture Week since 2022, providing a forum for strategic thinking on agrifood digitalization. The event has been an indisputable catalyst for collective action, consolidating a network of more than fifty AgTechs from more than fifteen countries. In so doing, Digital Agriculture Week has become a benchmark forum on an issue that is transforming agrifood systems in the hemisphere and the world.
Recently, as part of an institutionalization process, the members of the Network began to plan activities for 2025. The Agtech Accelerator program is part of a series of planned activities that the Network is preparing for this year.
