Acceleration programme

Welcome on the Farm’Innov Acceleration Programme application page.

Are you looking for a support to grow your agri-food business?
Do you know agrifood companies who need support to grow?

Farm’Innov Acceleration Programme will take you towards success!

The call is open from 1 July to 31 October 2024.

Why an acceleration programme ?

It has been built to respond to Farm’Innov project goal to build a sustainable partnership between Kenyan and Western French agri-food sectors businesses. As two agricultural and agri-food leaders in their respective region, agriculture and agrifood sectors have been identified as key sectors of cooperation between Kenya and France.

That’s why Valorial was mobilised to accelerate between 15 to 20 Kenyan companies, in order to help them to meet the 5 following objectives in Kenya:

Strengthening food security and sovereignty
Supporting the food transition to limit imports
Improving health quality and food safety
Enhancing the sustainability of the Kenyan food system
Creating local economic activities and local employment

Who can be accelerated ?

As applicant, you should meet at least 2 of the 4 following criteria on the date of application.

Having more than 25 full-time equivalent employees since January 1st 2023
Processing, manufacturing, packaging or distributing agricultural raw materials or food products.
Generating an annual turnover between 60 million and 800 million Kenyan shillings each year, for the last 3 years.
Being a company that has been in existence for at least 5 years.

In addition, this programme is aimed primarily at senior executives or department managers.
If you reach at least 2 of these 4 conditions and are eligible, you’ll have to present your project to accelerate in a suggested template.
Substantiated answers will be expected from applicants.
A limit on the number of characters in the answers will be imposed to give every applicant an equal chance.
4 different parts will have to be filled in in the template:

Presentation of the company,
Presentation of the project to accelerate in relation to Farm’Innov,
Challenges encountered and support needs,
Presentation of the company team applying to benefit directly from the acceleration.

Click here to apply

How will the companies be accelerated?

Farm’Innov is a cooperation and technical assistance project; the acceleration programme will therefore provide intellectual support to companies on Innovation issues through the involvement of French and Kenyan experts.
It will provide support to the accelerated companies for 12 months, from March 3rd,2025 to February 27th, 2026 (dates to be confirmed) around 2 different kinds of assistance:

Consultancy & trainings:
Each accelerated company will be designed a 10-day tailor-made programme that will include:

Modules common to all companies,
Modules specific to a group of companies,
Modules tailored to its own needs.

The French and Kenyan ecosystems will be solicited to provide these modules, according to the topics selected and in coherence with their expertise. Depending on the nature of the accelerated companies’ needs, the support offered may take the
form of:

Trainings or coaching, delivered in groups, small groups or individually, remote by French experts or face-to-face by Kenyan experts.
Mentoring by a French or Kenyan entrepreneur who shares his or her experience.

Immersion visits:
The immersion visits will allow the accelerated companies to gain an insight into how the French food industry works. It will be an eye-opening experience to other types of operation, and a source of inspiration to accelerate the winning projects.

2 immersion visits will be organised during the lifetime of the acceleration programme: one in April 2025 and the other one in November 2025 (dates to be confirmed). Each one will take place in Western France during seven days. The accelerated companies will be offered the opportunity to take part to one of the two visits, on the basis of one participant per accelerated company.

The immersion visits may include:

Meetings with agri-food entrepreneurs from the Great West of France,
Visits to partner sites and companies based on acceleration topics, in line with the themes selected and the concerns of the companies,
Sharing and feedback workshop for Kenyan companies at the end of the mission.

How to apply for the Acceleration Programme?

The call is open from 1 July to 31 October 2024.
Here is the path for applying companies:

The application must be submitted digitally, via the Farm’Innov project website and only via this channel. The applicant will receive an acknowledgement of receipt once the application has been submitted.
The applicants can apply between 1 July and 31 October 2024.

Click here to apply

For more information about the Acceleration Programme,
please consult the Farm’Innov Acceleration Programme framework.

If you have any further question, please contact Farm’Innov team: