Applications are now open for the fourth edition of the Agrytech Hackathon, taking place online on the 3-18 of December 2020.
The Agrytech Hackathon is organized by Berytech in partnership and with the full and unwavering support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Lebanon.
This e-hackathon is an exciting opportunity to develop innovative solutions using technologies such as Internet of Things, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the agri-food sector. Throughout the e-hackathon, participants will receive the assistance of technical, industry and business experts, and will have access to the tools and hardware prototyping facilities at the Berytech Fab Lab.
15-Day Online Event
The Agrytech Hackathon will be an engaging 15-day online event, bringing together engineers, makers, data scientists, creatives, innovators, entrepreneurs, and young professionals from various backgrounds.
During these fifteen days, participants will discover real challenges facing the agri-food sector in Lebanon, learn how to transform their idea into a valid business solution through intensive online workshops, prototype their solution, and then pitch it to a panel of judges to have the chance to win prizes including a 2-month access to Berytech’s validation support under the Agrytech Accelerator Program for the first two prizes.
Opportunities to innovate under lie under 5 main Tracks.
- Farming: Land use and Planning, Water Pollution and Scarcity, Import Substitution, Scaling up small productions, Post-Harvest Conditioning
- Food industry: Innovative Packaging, Customer Behavior and marketing, Logistics and Cold Chain, Quality Management systems automation
- Rangelands and Forestry: Pest Prevention in forest, Irrigation in forest lands
- Fishing and Aquaculture: Locating New Fishing Sources
- Management Support – Learning & Extension: Extension, Voucher Schemes, Elimination of duplicated efforts between NGOs, Online learning for technical schools, Finance and business model (Fintech solution)
How It Works
Applicants must be in teams of at least three members. Those encouraged to apply are engineers, developers, coders, makers, data scientists, creatives, innovators, entrepreneurs and young professionals. They can apply with their own idea if the idea falls under one of the pre-set challenges or can hack one of the preset challenges. The online event is open for Lebanese residing in Lebanon.
Their solution – an idea or within an early-stage startup, needs to fall under the agri-food sector and should includes a tech component (Software, hardware, IOT).
Phase 1: Pre-hackathon
Thursday, December 3 – Saturday, December 5, 2020
Participants will get all the information needed regarding the process of the e-hackathon, discover real challenges facing the agri-food sector, receive the guidance needed to identify the main problem and sketch different solutions, and will have the chance to validate their assumptions to better understand their customer.
Phase 2: Validation and Assessment
Saturday, December 5, 2020 – Thursday, December 10, 2020
Participants will have to go on the field to validate their idea, then pitch their solution to an internal jury, stressing on the field assessment to get the chance to be selected among the 20 teams to continue in the Agrytech Hackathon.
Phase 3: Hackathon
Friday, December 11, 2020 – Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Selected Teams will receive all the information needed to turn their idea into a valid business solution, have the chance to build their innovative agri-food hardware or software solution and get the support of experts.
Phase 4: Post-Hackathon
Thursday, December 17, 2020 – Friday December 18, 2020
Participants will have to pitch their solution and present their demo to the jury, to get the chance to be selected among the 8 finalists.
Finally, on Friday afternoon, the 8 finalists will get to pitch their idea to a jury who will then announce the top 3 winners.
The prizes are $4,500, $3,500 and $1,000 respectively as well as 2-month access to Berytech’s validation support under the Agrytech Accelerator Program for the 2 first winners.
Learn more and apply to the Agrytech Hackathon.
Agrytech Accelerator Program
Berytech is catalyzing agri-food innovations through a yearly three-phase program that allows entrepreneurs grow their startup from an idea into a scalable business.
With the support of The Kingdom of the The Netherlands, Berytech designed and developed the Agrytech program to make sure Lebanon has the most competitive companies innovating in the agri-food sector.
Learn more about the Agrytech Accelerator Program.
