Egyptian Agri-Tech Startup Wins First Place in Shell’s LiveWIRE Competition

Egyptian agri-tech startup, Baramoda, bags first place award at Shell’s LiveWIRE competition. The global competition aimed to highlight businesses that demonstrate excellence in innovation, as well as giving emerging entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase their innovative solution on a global platform. Baramoda is an agri-tech startup that is among the first startups in the MENA region that produces customised organic fertilisers based on soil type, crop-needs and the goal of cultivation. Three entrepreneurs from Egypt, the United Kingdom and Indonesia took home the top prizes for this year’s competition, with $20,000 awarded to each each winner.

Established in 2018 by Mohamed Abozaid, Mostafa Elnaby, and Moussa Khalil as a sustainable innovative solution to agriculture-based issues, the startup develops organic fertilisers from plant-based agricultural waste in an effort to minimise the cost of agricultural production, increase crop producton at minimal usage of water resources, and reduce excessive and unnecessary use of chemical fertilisers. Each founder has a background in tech, which they are leveraging to develop software that connects all employees in the agriculture industry to exchange their experiences and improve the ecosystem by allowing them to make the best decisions with minimal risks.

“Winning Shell’s LiveWIRE first-place prize will help us invest more in the R&D team, to increase productivity and develop new products that will help us have a competitive edge over its competitors and improve our business operation and upscale our valuable impact in the agri-tech sector,” says Mohamed Abozaid, CEO and co-founder of Baramoda. Additionally, the startup has plans to raise more funds in the beginning of 2020 to increase their production capacity and build new units to serve all of Egypt, as well as further developing their agri-tech software and develop liquid bio-products to compete the cultivation cycle of crops.

With their participation in the competition, the founders of Baramoda spoke to StartupScene about the challenges brought by the opportunity, specifying that competing with a multitude of differently innovative startups from all over the world was quite nerve-wracking, but winning the first-place-prize in the competition allowed them to push their business forward and make their employees proud of what they are doing. Furthermore, the voting process in the competition made Baramoda more popular and a fan-favourite not only among those interested in agriculture, but also their customers. As part of the competition’s award package, Shell will provide industry-leading experts as mentors that shall help the startup in their next steps of expansion, as well as the opportunity to benefit from market linkages as being a part of Shell’s extensive network of vendors and clients.

One of the finalists also includes Saudi Arabian agri-tech startup, TeckLee, which marked the tenth place spot for their affordable, biodegradable plastic-alternative solution.