Endeavor and FMO Continue Partnership for Third African Agri-Tech Scale-Up Program
Following the success of the previous two cohorts, Endeavor South Africa and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, are pleased to announce the continuation of its partnership to empower a third cohort of early stage African agri-tech ventures with access to Endeavor’s African Agri-Tech Scale Up Program.
The program commences in July 2025 and empowers the most promising early-stage agri-tech and agri-adjacent ventures across the African continent with tailored growth support through Endeavor’s network for a period of 12-months. These entrepreneurs gain access to the necessary tools to develop globally scalable solutions, by connecting them to the right business leaders and industry experts within Endeavor’s network, providing tailored mentoring, commercial introductions, and investor networking opportunities.
This collaboration between Endeavor and FMO plays a critical role in deepening support for Africa’s agri-tech ecosystem. The program is set to address growth challenges encountered by agri-tech start-ups across Africa, with the goal of helping these high-impact companies scale and raise private capital. And through this unlock the potential innovative agriculture offers to drive economic growth, food security, and job creation in the region. The program plays a significant role in helping these agri-tech’s grow, ensuring they’re investible and attractive opportunities to local and global venture capital investors.
Past program participants shared the following reflections about the impact of the program:
“One of the greatest learnings was realising that we had the wrong business model. We rebuilt our foundation, aligned our team, and now have 10x the growth potential. Our processes are documented, resilient and optimised; our team is up to speed and autonomous; and within half a year, our sales have grown by +200% month to month. We are very grateful to FMO and Endeavor South Africa for the impact that this program has had on our business.” Betrand Foffe, Co-founder & CEO of Jangolo (Cohort 1, Mar 2022 – Feb 2023)
“Being part of the Endeavor program has been a transformative experience, particularly at a critical juncture when the company needed to refine and scale its business model. The program’s support has been invaluable providing personalised guidance and access to a network of experienced professionals.” Tajudeen Yahaya, Co-founder & CEO of Extension Africa (Cohort 2, Jan 2024 – Dec 2024)
“The program has facilitated a number of thought-provoking engagements with industry experts, in both a group context and one on one mentoring discussions. It has helped us shape our marketing, distribution and capital raising strategies. It also has been a fantastic opportunity for us to gain visibility and credibility.” Deina Mayaki, Co-founder & CEO of Agriarche (Cohort 2, Jan 2024 – Dec 2024)
Founded in 1997, Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for high-impact entrepreneurs. With offices in 45 markets around the world, Endeavor has a global network, comprising over 5,500 mentors, 500 growth investors, 2,900 high-impact entrepreneurs and over 600 staff. Predicated on the idea of paying-it-forward, Endeavor’s mission is to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world by inspiring high-growth entrepreneurs to dream bigger while supporting and investing in them to scale faster, and providing a platform to give-back to the network.
Alison Collier, Managing Director of Endeavor SA, shared her enthusiasm: “It’s wonderful for Endeavor to deepen its partnership with FMO and to be joining forces to drive growth in the agri-tech sector in Africa – enhancing food security and driving local revenue and job growth across the continent. We are excited to continue our work with promising African agri-techs – connecting them to founders, investors and mentors in Endeavor’s global network and accelerating their growth.”
This new cohort is co-funded by Endeavor South Africa and the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Building component of the FMO Ventures Program Technical Assistance Facility, supported financially by the Dutch government (Building Prospects) and European Union. This component seeks to foster the maturity of the venture capital sector in targeted emerging markets by improving services of incubators, accelerators and other entrepreneurial support organizations, as well as enabling more early-stage financing for ventures.
“Providing more investment readiness services for scaling businesses is critical in growing the agri-tech sector across Africa, so we are eager to collaborate with Endeavor to provide tailored support to another cohort of promising ventures in one of our key sectors.” Marieke Roestenberg, FMO Ventures Program Manager
“The agri-tech space in Africa is growing, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. By focusing on this sector, we’ve fostered cross-pollination of ideas and helped build a more mature ecosystem across the continent. The FMO and Endeavor partnership is more than just an accelerator—it’s a catalyst for long-term, sustainable impact.” Maurice Scheepens, Senior Investment Officer at FMO
About Endeavor
Endeavor South Africa is a non-profit company focused on driving inclusive growth and job creation through its support of “high-growth entrepreneurs” – specifically in less developed markets leveraging its strong pro-bono global network of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and staff. For more information about Endeavor SA, please visit: www.endeavor.co.za
About FMO
FMO is the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in frontier and growth markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a close to 50-year proven track record of empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life. FMO focuses on three sectors that have a high development impact: financial institutions, energy, and agribusiness, food & water. With a committed portfolio of EUR 13.2 billion spanning over 85 countries, FMO is one of the larger bilateral private sector development banks globally. For more information about FMO: please visit: www.fmo.nl