News from the first Agriculture Innovation Investment Summit

SWFF Program News

June 13, 2016

Ignitia wins second place in the AIIS pitch competition

Washington, D.C. -- Last week, 24 Securing Water for Food innovators participated in USAID's first-ever Agriculture Innovation Investment Summit (AIIS) with colleagues from Powering Agriculture and Feed the Future . The Summit, designed to help bridge connections between innovators and help them gain traction within the investment community, featured TED talk-style presentations and a lively pitch competition judged by a panel of established investors in the field.

Lizzie Merrill, representing Ignitia, brought home second place and a $5,000 prize after Powering Agriculture's innovator Surehatch, winner of the first prize and a stipend of $10,000.

MIT's Desal project was featured in Seeking Solutions from the Unusual Suspects, a Huffington Post feature by Ann Mei Chang, Director of the U.S. Global Development Lab (Huffington Post)
ARCADIS partnered with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) to gauge the water sustainability of 50 countries worldwide: The Top 50 Most Sustainable Cities for Water Management (Consultancy UK)
Puralytics is hoping to sell up to 1 million units of its light-activated water filters next year and is seeking $10 million to do so: Puralytics Looks to Raise $10M, Sell 1 Million-plus Water Filters (Bizjournals)
Ignita was featured on RTVE Spain's "A Punto Con La 2"
Islamic Relief Kenya has partnered with SunCulture to sell solar powered irrigation systems to small scale farmers in Kenya: New Irrigation System Reaches the Poorest Farmers (Sida)

At last week's Agriculture Innovation Investment Summit in Washington, DC, Securing Water for Food innovators presented TED talk-style presentations and pitched their solutions to investors in a lively pitch competition. Below is a glimpse into some of the outcomes and updates from our innovators. Stay tuned for further updates from the Summit.

Ignitia is aiming to reach more than 1 million farmers and produce more than $6 million in revenue, breaking even on their cash flow by 2018.
Aybar has increased crop yields for Ethiopian farmers by up to 300 percent, making 4 million hectares of previously unused land available for farming.
Si Technologies is well positioned to capture 1 million customers in India by 2019. The first 5,000 liters of NewSil have been produced and shipped in India. They are producing 1,000 liters of their foliar spray per day and project this number will rise to 6,250 liters per day in 2017. The company has pending negotiations with distributors in India, Kenya, and South Africa with plans to proceed with product registration in 8-10 countries.
AST is selling 1kg of seed in India for 15 rupees and predicts that this will lead to a total addressable market of $50 million.
aQysta projects that by 2020, they will sell 1,000 Barsha Pumps annually. Their vision is to be the global leader of hydro-powered pumps.
Practical Action recently signed an MOU with the Bangladesh Ministry of Agriculture for wider scaling up of their sandbar cropping solution. They also began selling their pumpkins in Indonesia and Europe.
This year, MyRain established relationships with 400 retailers, covered 560 acres with their drip irrigation systems and saved more than 250 million liters of water.
Conservation South Africa helped farmers bring home $210,000 in earnings from their cattle this year.
World Hope International's greenhouses have led to a 60 percent reduction in water use and 3-10x increase in crop yields for their users in Mozambique.

The Art of the Pitch: How Startup Social Enterprises Pitch Impact Investor (Devex)
The Deliberation: How Impact Investors Evaluate What Venture to Fund (Devex)
From Bamboo to Solar Irrigation, Entrepreneurs Eye New Markets (ClimateWire)
Experts: Slow Southern Africa Drought Needs Quicker Response (Voice Of America)
Understanding Water Risks Drives Global Investors (Circle of Blue)
How to Grow Food in Drought-hit Zimbabwe? Add Irrigation (Reuters)
El Nino is Over - But It Leaves Nearly 100 Million People Short of Food (The Guardian)
Tanzania Seizes 'Idle' Land from Investors to Return to Poor Farmers (Reuters)
Groundwater Resources Assessment under the Pressures of Humanity and Climate Change (Hydrology)
Ecosystem Conservation and Groundwater (Hydrology)
Drought and 'Rice First' Policy Imperil Vietnamese Farmers (New York Times)
Nearly 3 mln People Need Food Aid in Drought-Hit Central America - UN (Reuters)

Securing Water for Food innovators gather for a group shot at the June Agriculture Innovation Investment Summit with innovators in the Powering Agriculture and Feed the Future programs.

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