Nigeria’s FieldDev Group, an agribusiness-focused geographic information systems mapping provider, has emerged winner in the ‘2020 Space-Tech Earth Observation Innovation Challenge’.
According to a statement on Friday, the startup was joined in third place by Rwanda’s HeHe, which uses remote sensing technology to forecast post-harvest demand for crops.
The competition, organised by the South African National Space Agency in partnership with other agencies, was aimed to develop early-stage African tech startups that utilise downstream applications of space technology in the agriculture, insurance, retail, and sustainability and conservation industries.
The statement said the companies won SecureWatch Premium 2GB, valid for three months to the value of $5,000.
It also stated that the startups won access to a four-month online incubation and virtual mentorship and ongoing access to a peer-to-peer network through the TechTribe Accelerator.
The first-place winner was South Africa’s Hydro Blu, a geospatial data science company established to increase borehole drilling accuracy. It received a SecureWatch Premium 5GB valid for three months to the value of $12,500.
Coming second was South Africa’s Smart AgrIoT, a cloud-based farm management platform.
The next iteration of the Space-Tech challenge in 2021 is expected to promote new entrants and entrepreneurs across the industry value chain.
