After months of preparation, the Sun Business Network in Ethiopia held its first national Pitch Competition under the theme “Scale Up, Boost Your Business” on the 28th of June 2021 at the Hyatt Regency in Addis Ababa. The competition drew over 20 applicants of which 5 finalists pitched their innovative nutrition solutions for a chance to win cash and technical assistance prizes with a combined amount of 10,000 US Dollars. The competition was led by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) with the support from Irish Aid and the World Food Programme (WFP) as well as BoP Innovation Center, which organized the modular boot camp sessions to prepare the finalists for the pitches. The competition had the main focus of identifying SMEs that can provide big, inspiring, and disruptive investment solutions that respond to food systems innovation challenges such as food design, post-harvest loss reduction, market connectivity, and food safety. With a full hybrid event and live transmission of the pitches, judges that were assigned evaluated all participants from the four thematic innovation areas awarding the top three winners on the same day. Accordingly,  Anjonus Fruit and Vegetable Processing Enterprise, followed by GroHydro Manficturting PLC and Nutridense took the top spots for this year’s competition. 

The linkages made from this competition are expected to continue engagement by harnessing innovative solutions for improving the availability of affordable and nutritious foods by connecting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets with technical assistance and investment opportunities. The competition is expected to be held every year bringing in more business to support in elevating the engagement of the private sector in the nutrition agenda of the country as one of SBN Ethiopia’s core objectives. 

To watch the full live event and look at the pitches on the following YouTube video or Sun Pitch Competition (Ethiopia 2021) – YouTube