Female Founder Award Winners 2025
This July, we are proud to announce the winners of the SAIS Female Founder Award 2025. This an initiative by “Scaling digital Agriculture Innovations through Start-ups” (SAIS), a project implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The award recognizes female founders from Africa with unique businesses that have a strong digital component and embrace social impact in the AgTech, FoodTech or ClimateTech sector. We honour and support ambition and celebrate the inspiring impact these founders are making across the continent.
First, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who applied. We received over 200 inspiring stories of innovation, resilience, and purpose. Over the past weeks, our jury had the privilege of reviewing a diverse range of impactful ideas from across the African continent. As you can imagine, selecting only three winners was a real challenge.
Our warmest congratulations go to the following founders, whose impactful projects and uniqueness have made a true difference.
The first prize goes to Naledi Magowe from Brastorne in Botswana, with their product, mAgri, a USSD-based platform that connects rural smallholder farmers to vital information, markets, and peers; enabling access through basic phones without the internet, and empowering them to participate in the digital economy. Brastorne will receive in-kind support worth up to €30,000.
The second prize is awarded to Hafsah Jumare from Coamana in Nigeria, which has developed a digital platform to help traditional agricultural market leaders organize their market networks (farmer & traders) access trade opportunities, credit, and insurance, solving market fragmentation and capital access challenges. Coamana will receive up to €15,000 in in-kind support.
The third prize goes to Janet Kuteli from Fortune Credit in Kenya, which aims to bridge the gap between underserved populations and financial inclusion. This is done by developing accessible products and adopting a tech-touch model to effectively reach and serve their target audience. Fortune Credit will receive up to €7,000 in in-kind support.
We sincerely thank you for your participation, your inspiring products, and your contribution to offering solutions that lead to income growth, improved nutrition, or adaptation to climate change, as well as promoting a more equitable and dynamic landscape for female founders in Africa!
If you would like to meet and connect with the winners in person, we will be present at the AfricArena Summit in September!