FINCA Ventures Prize Competition 2025 for African Social Entrepreneurs (Up to $100,000 Grant Award)

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Applications are open for FINCA Ventures Prize Competition 2025. Are you an African entrepreneur working to disrupt the market with a bold idea that could help end poverty in our lifetime? FINCA Ventures is hosting the second annual Prize Competition to fund early-stage companies with visionary leaders looking to drive impact and innovation in climate-smart agriculture and fintech in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The FINCA Ventures Prize is a competition for African entrepreneurs with bold visions, disruptive business models, or new products or technologies that can create meaningful impact for poor and low-income people in developing markets.

FINCA Ventures Prize Competition Categories

Climate-Smart Agriculture
- In the climate-smart agriculture category, they seek entrepreneurs who are developing and scaling innovative solutions which improve the climate resilience of smallholder farmers.
- Key areas of interest include supporting smallholder farmers with access to improved inputs, financing, climate-smart agricultural knowledge and extension services, climate and weather-related information, insurance products, irrigation and mechanization, and offtake markets.
Fintech for Financial Inclusion
- In the fintech for financial inclusion category, they are looking for founders who are rethinking the provision of financial services through innovative digital-first channels to provide access to financial resources, increase financial literacy & unlock productivity of underserved populations.

Funding Information

In each category, the grand prize winner will receive a grant award of $100,000.
The second and third place finalists will receive grant awards of $60,000 and $40,000, respectively.

Eligibility Criteria for FINCA Ventures Prize Competition

Companies must have at least one African founder, be for-profit, post-revenue, be revenue generating for five years or less, be operational in sub-Saharan Africa, and address issues in financial inclusion or agriculture.
To win a grant award, participants must be able to travel to San Francisco (with costs covered by FINCA) to present in front of a panel of judges and attend the awards ceremony and reception.
They are looking for companies with a significant presence in sub-Saharan Africa and whose solution fits into one of the following two categories: climate-smart agriculture and fintech for financial inclusion.

Judging Criteria

The entries will be judged according to the following criteria:
- Strength of Entrepreneur & Team
- Innovativeness of Solution
- Social & Environmental Impact
- Market Traction and Financial Sustainability
- Strategy for Growth