Farmites emerge winner of SLA Demo Day

Recently, an agricultural trading company, a premium furniture designer, and an online caregiver platform went home as the winners at the 2017 She Leads Africa (SLA) Demo Day. The Demo Day was the closing ceremony to the three-month She Leads Africa Accelerator entrepreneurship development program.

SLA is a community that helps young African women achieve their professional dreams. With development events and engaging online content, SLA has become a leading platform for ambitious young women in Africa.

Supported by the Work in Progress! Alliance (VC4Africa and Oxfam), OCP, Guaranty Trust Bank, and Intel Corp, the SLA Accelerator worked with 20 promising companies looking to grow and scale their businesses.  However, at demo day, five of the top companies were able to pitch their businesses in front of esteemed business leaders to win cash prizes.

Afua Osei, Co-Founder of SLA said: “Since August, it has been truly impressive to see the growth and development of these women entrepreneurs.”The first place winner of N2 million was Farmties, represented by Dara Adekunle of the OCP Agribusiness Cohort. Farmties works closely with farmers in sourcing and aggregating farm products whilst investing in the right technology to reach out to customers, taking advantage of the growing agriculture industry in Nigeria and providing a platform to trade agriculture commodities.

The second place winner of N1 million was Taeillo, represented by Jumoke Dada of the Lagos Creative Cohort. Taeillo is a furniture and lifestyle brand that designs and manufactures furniture by harnessing traditional local resources with both local and modern technology to create premium urban African pieces.

The third place winner of N500, 000 was Greymate Care, represented by Chika Madubuko of the Intel technology cohort. Chika created an online platform that connects the elderly and vulnerable adults to a highly trained and insured caregiver thus, taking the stress of care off busy professionals.The other two companies that pitched their businesses to the room full of investors and business stakeholders were CEO Consultancy & Translation Services and Food-i-Like.