Mastercard Foundation Agribusiness Challenge Fund 2024-2025 (up to $2,500,000)

The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity has launched an Agribusiness Challenge Fund, calling for proposals from SMEs in the agriculture sector that can create work opportunities at scale for young women and men, young persons with disabilities, and refugee youth.

The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity is a new fund established following the successful conclusion of the Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity, which was in operation for eight years from 2014 to 2023 and supported 38 participant businesses from 15 countries in Africa. These businesses were able to innovate and scale financial products and services targeting the rural population and further enable financial inclusion for over 5.3 million people.

The Agribusiness Challenge Fund will provide SMEs with innovative and commercially viable agribusinesses across 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa the opportunity to receive support to upscale their businesses in a bid to create sustainable employment opportunities for young people, with particular focus on young women.

Benefits of Agribusiness Challenge Fund

• Selected SMEs will receive support from the Fund, including grants ranging from US$ 500,000 to US$ 2,500,000, disbursed over a 3-year period, based on the applicants’ development stage, scalability and business model, in accordance with agreed periodic milestone targets. The funding structure will be determined on a case-by-case basis after evaluating proposals and organizations.
• Additional support to successful applicants will include tailored technical assistance in alignment with FRP objectives over the 3-year period.

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Eligibility

• Open to SMEs in the following 20 Sub-Saharan Africa countries: Kenya, Benin, Burundi, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
• SMEs should be implementing their solutions in three key sectors; agriculture, climate impact and digital economy.

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