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With our numerous programs, colleagues, and partners based around the continent, it's always an exciting time when we have the opportunity to touch down on African soil. This past February, we had the privilege of bringing six Israeli DevTech companies along with us to the 11th Sankalp Africa Summit - as well as accompanying business activities throughout Kenya. The companies that joined us were diverse in their sectors, stages, and experience in the continent, but all shared the common thread of being what we call a DevTech company - for-profit companies with solutions for global development challenges. Meet the Companies & Representatives Kenya-Israel Business Seminar The delegation started off with a B2B seminar put together by our fabulous and collaborative partners, the Israel Economic Mission to Kenya, where we were astounded by the 115 attendees joining from 84 Kenyan companies, looking to hear from the delegates and seek potential routes for collaboration. The event included presentations by all six companies, followed by B2B meetings between the delegates and Kenyan attendees, curated and matched by the Israel Economic Mission to Kenya. The day ended with a cocktail event for more opportunities to network and mingle. This day was a perfect start to the delegation for the representatives joining us, giving them direct exposure to potential partners, as well as an opportunity to present themselves and what they are looking to gain from the trip. We are so grateful for the tremendous effort by the Israel Economic Mission to Kenya to put together such a spirited event, warmly welcoming and introducing Israeli companies to representatives of Kenya’s innovation ecosystem. The delegates left impressed by the event's production quality and business potential, while Kenyan companies expressed interest in future visits to Israel and continuing conversations with many of the delegates. Sankalp Annual Summit When the time came to attend the Sankalp Africa Summit, our delegates were rested and ready for the main event. As official partners of the event for the first time, we hosted a booth with the Israel Economic Mission to Kenya where we showcased the companies and their solutions. Participants that came to our booth were able to meet face-to-face with the delegates, as well as access their contact information and read more about them in the catalog we prepared. In the weeks leading up to Sankalp, the Pears Program team prepared the companies with curated stakeholder mapping to maximize their time at the conference, as well as assistance in accessing potential speaking engagements to heighten their exposure at the conference itself. We were thrilled to watch Elisha Rubin, Executive Chairman and Co-CEO of Agri-Light participate in the Climate Investor Dealroom  session, where he pitched for potential investors and got the chance to expand his network and future opportunities in the continent. Sankalp was an incredible opportunity to expose a handful of startups in our community to Africa’s innovation ecosystem, and vice versa. We are very grateful to Sankalp for welcoming us as official partners, as well as the warm welcome extended to our delegates. We look forward to future summits with Sankalp Forum, Israel Economic Mission to Kenya, and more of Israel’s most cutting-edge DevTech companies. We invite you to get in touch with us if you are interested in exploring future delegations with Pears Program for Global Innovation.

Check out the booklet below for information on the cutting edge Israeli startups participating in Sankalp Africa Summit this year. Stay tuned for updates! Learn more about Pears Program for Global Innovation >>

Applications are now open for Innovation Journey 4 - a perfect time to reflect on the process companies went through in Innovation Journey 3, and how they tapped into South Africa’s 2-million smallholder farmer market. South Africa (SA) is a unique country within its continent.  For decades it has been a pioneer of development, showing economic and infrastructural  growth. With GDP per capita triple the continent’s average and an agricultural sector resembling that of developed countries, the country is a magnet for innovation in the field. The variety of products exported by the country, such as citrus (2nd  globally) and wine (9th globally), serve as a proof for its excellence. At the same time, South Africa suffers from inequalities. The country still has 2 million smallholder farmers, majority black, that are left excluded from the booming agriculture sector. With limited access to infrastructure, finance, and markets they are left out of new agricultural practices and market opportunities that yield higher profits and productivity. Entire sectors, such as honey production and urban agriculture, are left untapped, and challenges of water supply and climate change hinder the efforts to incorporate these farmers into supply chains. This is exactly why South Africa’s smallholder farmers were a target population of Innovation Journey 3 (IJ3). The program was established with the goal of introducing cutting-edge Israeli agtech technologies to improve the livelihoods  of smallholder farmers. Unlike in many other low and middle income countries where smallholder farmers are faced with the challenges of dysfunctional supply chains and broken export channels, their South African counterparts have a well functioning sector, right across the road. This reality opens the door for strong collaborations and faster growth, with a multitude of strong players active in the market. The third edition of the Innovation Journey program, taking place between June 2022 and May 2023, offered  a comprehensive process, focusing on meeting the needs of three focus areas: beekeeping, urban agriculture and climate smart irrigation. The end results were promising, generating 7 deep partnership discussions between SA and Israeli counterparts, and two $25K grants awarded by the JDC to two of the  partnerships that showed the most significant promise and potential. After a year-long process, led by the JDC, in partnership with the Ministry of Economy and Industry of Israel, and with the Pears Program for Global Innovation serving as the professional content partners, the third edition of the Innovation Journey was wrapped up in a festive and well-attended event in May 2023. Focus areas The focus areas for IJ3 were selected based on comprehensive research of market trends and opportunities, as well as in alignment with JDC’s prior priorities and engagements within South Africa. Beekeeping is not living up to its potential in the country. While South Africa is a considerable consumer of honey and has favorable natural conditions for its production, half of the country’s honey is imported from China, with its beekeepers producing approximately one-third of the honey per hive, compared to their Israeli peers. Most of this honey is produced by small rural beekeepers with little resources, indicating major signs of untapped potential. Another such untapped subsector is urban agriculture. While rural smallholder farmers have small plots to grow food for subsistence, many slums in big cities (called townships in SA) constitute big agricultural deserts, leaving many households to struggle generating  livelihoods and getting the food they need. Although urban agriculture can provide a lot of solutions in such cases, lack of knowledge and access to technologies that are adapted to their realities prevent them from turning to this solution. The third focus area was climate smart agriculture. Due to intense and prolonged droughts beginning in 2015, South African authorities limited water supply drastically, with a certain daily allowance per household. This ongoing crisis has seriously affected smallholder farmers, who predominantly rely on rain for irrigation. The Western Cape region, which is home to extensive agricultural activity, is experiencing increasing drought and dropping water levels in its aquifers, and will need to adapt to warmer temperatures in the future. This is an opportunity for technological innovation to help farmers improve production of crops by adapting to the climate change. Following the identification of the 3 aforementioned areas, 11 partners from the SA ecosystems were recruited to explore partnerships with the program's participants.  After the identification of their needs, and an extensive and targeted recruitment process, 8 Israeli startups were admitted into the program: H4Bees, Ivry B-Hive, Solidrip, Nature Tech, BioLed, TalYa, EZPAck, and Agri-Light. Over a period of six months, the startups went through a comprehensive process designed to create an optimal environment for partnership exploration: Deep market dive, learning about the environment on the ground in each subsector Processing of the acquired information to understand their market fit, and acquiring essential tools to hold a viable partnership discussion Gradually engaging with the program’s South African partners to explore partnership interest and to design a partnership plan Receiving fundraising mentorship to understand potential funding channels for their joint project or pilot Applying for the two $25K grants as a funding boost for their project The program has been concluded with some important milestones having been reached. Out of 8 participants, 7 concluded the full process, and 3 partnerships continue to work towards implementation. The program discovered the crucial importance in grant funding support, not only for the awardees but also for other applicants. Grant funding incentivises exploring opportunities to potential joint projects more comprehensively than usual. This, combined with fundraising mentorship which opened the door to additional funding paths, helped both sides to continue communication and the exploration process. One of these partnerships is the collaboration between Solidrip and 10 Million Makers. Solidrip developed a cutting edge technology, which was designed to enhance urban greening in built environments. One of their unique value propositions is that the device is operating mechanically and doesn’t require connectivity and electricity supply. This creates potential for urban communities with needs to grow food and no access to electricity. Solidrip partnered with 10 Million Makers, an NGO which works to introduce simple urban agriculture practices in one of the townships of Johannesburg. The collaboration with Solidrip allows them to significantly increase the amount of produce grown, and as a result the income generated by the communities. The partnership pilots multiple concepts to adjust the technology to the township environment. With two partnerships at a pilot phase and one in the fundraising process, the organizers have optimistic expectations of seeing impactful technologies explore their viability in the South African smallholder farmer market. Applications for Innovation Journey 4 are now open! Innovation Journey (IJ) program is an opportunity for cutting edge Israeli ag-tech companies and Ethiopian agriculture ecosystem stakeholders to engage with one another and explore partnerships for piloting innovative technologies, with the goal of bringing value to Ethiopia’s agriculture market and small/medium-scale farmers. Apply here or reach out to us at ron.yakir@pearsprogram.com

October 7th marked a seismic shift for Israel as it grappled with the aftermath of Hamas's invasion into its southern communities, leaving hundreds of thousands displaced, injured, or worse. Despite a delay in mobilization of Israel’s systems and resources, the Israeli public responded with remarkable agility, taking the matter into their own hands. Mothers and fathers put on their uniforms for reserve duty, hi-tech workers redirected their focus to establish command centers and donation sites, and restaurants transformed their kitchens to provide meals for reservists and evacuated families from the south and north. Another notable trend during this crisis was the swift and confident pivot by Israel's private sector. With hundreds of thousands going to mandatory reserve duty, evacuated from their homes, and directly impacted by the tragedy, the private sector’s actions and redirection of resources are not a given. Rural Senses is a perfect example of a company that did just that. Rural Senses is a UK/Israeli-based Social Enterprise that originates from 7 years of research conducted at the University of Cambridge. Rural Senses helps nonprofits and community leaders to build more targeted projects, increase project adoption and raise more funding. Their AI-powered tools are used to collect, analyze and visualize data about the changing priorities and perceptions of community members and give the users tools for rapid needs assessment. Given their expertise in needs assessment, Rural Senses was quickly connected to Israel’s Ministry of Welfare (MoW) through Moked Arava. The MoW was deep in situation assessment mode, trying to identify the most pressing needs across the country in order to accurately and effectively respond. In the unique landscape of this emergency, where every corner of the country felt the impact, the challenge lay in identifying the most urgent needs. Within a week of the war’s onset, Rural Senses began leveraging their innovative AI-driven technology, scanning public social media platforms. They filtered and analyzed relevant posts, extracting vital information about affected communities—details such as location, age, and the challenges they faced—ultimately aiding in targeted response efforts. Simultaneously, together with several volunteers who joined the project, Rural Senses designed a complete dashboard for the MoW, with data highlighting locations, stakeholders, key words, and more. One of the biggest challenges during this time is the constant changing and shifting of needs from one thing to the next, and the difficulty of organizations to stay in the loop with what is needed and what is not. Maayan Rooks (pictured on the right), Senior Project Manager at Rural Senses shared, “We saw people who at first needed somewhere to evacuate to, and once they were evacuated, a new need emerged of not having enough clothes or not being able to bring their pet to their temporary housing. The needs came one after the other, sometimes one because of the other, and we were able to help the MoW to stay informed as these needs changed, allowing them to allocate resources with the data’s guidance”. This aspect of the project was notably distinctive, given that RuraSenses typically assesses changes over extended time frames. In this instance, where the war affected multiple areas of the country in various ways, Rural Senses observed a rapid and drastic shift in the population's needs. The ability of Rural Senses's technology to facilitate the MoW's real-time response to collective community needs truly marked it as a game-changer. In the first five weeks after Rural Senses launched their project with the MoW, they reviewed over 100,000 posts, extracting critical information from close to 15,000 of them. Within this emergency response period, they categorized and identified the most frequent needs into the following five categories: Shelter, including for those with damaged houses from the October 7 attack, those in communities on the northern and southern borders with mandatory evacuation orders, those close to but not falling within the required evacuation areas, families wanting to be near hospitals where loved ones are being treated, etc. Animal care, including help for organizations based in evacuated areas near southern/northern borders, lost pets from the October 7 attack on southern Israel, care for pets whose owners left Israel as a result of the war, care for pets who were unable to be evacuated with their families, etc. Availability of goods & equipment, namely for evacuated individuals (clothes, food, electronics, sanitary supplies) and for the military, due to the unprecedented number of reservists being called to duty in a period of 24 hours (a mix between protective gear, food supplies, and accommodations for sleeping and sanitation). Employment opportunities, both those searching for work and those seeking workers, particularly in the agricultural sector which was affected by foreign workers leaving Israel, and others from the Palestinian territories prohibited from entering under security protocol. Home maintenance, including safe-room improvements, repairs from damage created by the war, power outages, etc. These categories encapsulate the communal needs most frequently shared on social media. For the MoW, this information was important in directing their response efforts, but what was even more critical was the continuous change in the urgency of needs over time. Looking at this graph below, the change of needs can be seen in every case of the top 5 needs, comparing the frequency from week 2 (October 15) to week 7 of the crisis. Other needs identified by Rural Senses that were less frequent but still prevalent included mental health support, education, elderly care, disability support, and religious practices. Some of these needs also fluctuated between week 2-7, as pictured in the above graph. Insights and conclusions After identifying and extracting these needs from social media platforms, Rural Senses began their analysis in an effort to help the MoW become more aware of the changing needs, and therefore help them allocate resources accordingly. Below are excerpts of different analyses conducted by Rural Senses, showing trends and changing frequency of needs falling into several of the aforementioned categories, specifically between week 2 to week 7 of the war. To date, Rural Senses has scanned close to 120,000 social media posts, abstracting critical information from close to 20,000 of them. As the war continues months later, they will continue to provide Israel’s MoW with updates, insights, and analyses using their AI-driven tools. In the face of unprecedented adversity, Rural Senses emerged as a beacon of innovation and support during Israel's challenging times. Their collaboration with the Ministry of Welfare showcased the power of technology in real-time needs assessment, providing a dynamic response to the evolving crisis. As the needs of the affected communities shifted rapidly, Rural Senses' AI-driven tools became instrumental in helping the MoW stay informed and allocate resources efficiently. Through their dedication and adaptability, Rural Senses played a pivotal role in bringing accurate relief to those affected and exemplified the resilience of collective efforts in times of adversity. Rural Senses is an alumni startup of Pears Challenge IV, the flagship program of Pears Program for Global Innovation. Rural Senses is an end-2-end needs assessment and impact monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) solution for organisations working with vulnerable communities. They have offices in Kampala, Uganda, Nairobi Kenya, Tel-Aviv, Israel and Oxford, UK; and operations in Sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria), East Asia (India, Nepal and Bangladesh), East Europe (Romania), the Middle East (Israel) and Latin America (Ecuador). Applications for Pears Challenge: Validate are now open! Apply today.

We were pleased to sit down with Dr. Ira Ryk-Lakhman, COO of Fuse.io, to discuss the innovative, inclusive, and accessible technological infrastructure they offer to small businesses globally to bypass bureaucracies and fees associated with traditional finance. What is Fuse.io? Fuse.io was launched in 2019 with the aim of offering businesses and developers an end-to-end technical solution that enables alternative payment methods on their applications (Web3 Payments). Our biggest value proposition is that we offer small businesses, often burdened by fees associated with credit cards and not wanting to use cash, a third payment alternative. By operating and using Fuse’s software development kit (SDK), businesses can offer smaller merchants with lesser tech abilities an easy, seamless, payment solution at lower costs and high reliability. Additionally, we assist businesses with user retention and engagement by creating an easy and cheap payment solution that online and real-world merchants can easily adopt for free, while also building a customized loyalty club, offering their users rewards for their purchasesand maintaining user-engagement in between purchases. Notably, by adopting the Fuse infrastructure, businesses can appeal to new audiences seeking Web3 mobile solutions and payment methods. On top of this, the end-user also profits from this, leveraging fast, cheap, accurate and sophisticated mobile payments. Fuse currently has over 1.5 million accounts created, has facilitated over 128 million transactions, operates in 12 countries, and has a diverse team of some 30 people working globally and from the Tel Aviv HQ. Why does Fuse target emerging markets? In the 1970s, the large payment networks started creating the traditional railways for payment for the Western world, starting in North America, eventually making their way to Europe, and not quite arriving to less developed countries. For a long time, this meant extreme difficulties for developing countries, namely Africa and Asia, that were effectively excluded from the growing popularity of these, now traditional payment infrastructures. Fast forward to the 2000s and it's understood that this was actually a huge advantage - countries within Africa and Asia have been able to completely leapfrog over the traditional payment railways, making more room for innovative practices and coloring outside the lines. This is where we find such a strong business case; Fuse is made for countries that don’t follow the traditional payment railways designed for developed countries. Fuse is for businesses who seek to innovate and replace the back-end dating back to the 1970s with more innovative, secure, and cheaper payment methods. In addition, emerging economies are filled with small businesses contributing to and even powering the economies. Sub-Saharan Africa alone has 44 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and as previously mentioned, we put a lot of emphasis on reaching small businesses that would normally be affected by high fees from traditional payment mechanisms, or would struggle to expand due to other payment-related pain-points (such as, currency volatility, access to financial services, and more). One challenge we do encounter surrounds regulation. Africa is made up of 54 countries, all with different rules and regulations surrounding payments. And while it is years ahead of the fintech/blockchain development of Israel, we still see some vagueness with respect to regulatory approaches and therefore it is at times a bit complex to operate in. We have found that our best chance at mitigating this challenge is to partner with local regulated (licensed) companies who know and understand the local regulation better than we do. Regardless, we are providing the tech infrastructure and do not have access, nor will we ever, to the funds running on the platforms built on Fuse. How does Fuse improve the lives of people in emerging markets? We feel that our overall impact lies in Fuse’s ability to promote the growth and financial inclusion of small local businesses and economies. For example, we provide the tech infrastructure for ChromePay to offer its Digital IDs to unbanked populations in Africa, thereby developing local agriculture businesses. Looking at Ethiopia, ChromePay addresses the absence of a national ID system by connecting financial institutions with unbanked digital identity solution integrated with various financial services. Fuse Network granted funding to Chromepay to implement its decentralized identification (D-ID) solution on Fuse and integrate it into ChromePay and Fuse Smart Wallets. Chromepay uses Fuse Network to generate Digital IDs for its users and offers financial services linked to each D-ID through the Fuse Charge solution. Fuse enables ChromePay to offer services such as paying for micro-insurance and facilitates low-cost P2P transfers and remittances. As a result, small-scale farmers stand to gain an increase in accessibility of funds, receive financial education and a wide range of financial services, adopt new business models, and increase workforce and productivity within rural regions. We are proud to say that because of this, over 3000 farmers th o offer its Digital IDs to unbanked populations in Africa, thereby developing local agriculture businesses. Looking at Ethiopia, ChromePay addresses the absence of a national ID system by connecting financial institutions with unbanked digital identity solution integrated with various financial services. Fuse Network granted funding to Chromepay to implement its decentralized identification (D-ID) solution on Fuse and integrate it into ChromePay and Fuse Smart Wallets. Chromepay uses Fuse Network to generate Digital IDs for its users and offers financial services linked to each D-ID through the Fuse Charge solution. Fuse enables ChromePay to offer services such as paying for micro-insurance and facilitates low-cost P2P transfers and remittances. As a result, small-scale farmers stand to gain an increase in accessibility of funds, receive financial education and a wide range of financial services, adopt new business models, and increase workforce and productivity within rural regions. We are proud to say that because of this, over 3000 farmers that were previously excluded from the financial system are now included and able to benefit from their work. What is your vision for Fuse? In the near future I hope to see Fuse working with many more small businesses in emerging markets, as I feel these are the places where we can make the most tangible impact. I look forward to seeing Fuse expand within Africa, taking on different projects to show our applicability to even more use cases. I additionally hope to see our company being promoted more within emerging markets, especially through more developers and marketing professionals working with us from within Africa. On another note, I look forward to pursuing other strategic projects, especially in Israel, as I believe development of our fintech ecosystem is necessary and will put us on the map as the startup ecosystem that we allege ourselves to be.

With our next Pears Challenge soon launching and focusing on improving digital financial inclusion in East Africa, we were lucky enough to sit down with Alon Eitan, the CEO of an Israeli-Ghanaian company doing just this. Fido is on a mission to empower individuals and entrepreneurs to take advantage of opportunities in Africa. Founded in 2016, they have built an automatic banking platform (based on machine learning models) with unique risk management models, which process hundreds of thousands of data points in real time with credit insights as well as estimating risks and identifying fraud. These enable immediate credit decisions to be made even if customers have no previous financial records or access to banks. The app is available country-wide to any smartphone holder, even in regions with no bank branches. In addition, “Fido Score” was introduced to empower customers to build and maintain a digital financial track record, allowing them to have a digital financial identity, and reap the benefits of being visible to the financial system. To date, they have provided services to over 600,000 customers throughout Africa, and distributed over $300 M worth of credit. What is Fido’s mission? Fido’s overall mission is to make financial services accessible to individuals and small businesses across Africa. We believe true economic growth begins with people wanting to maximize their potential and grow, and when financial services are out of reach for them, this is simply impossible. Fido was created to be completely accessible - no matter where you are or where you start from, you will have something to keep you going and growing. In the countries we work in, the banking systems are mostly complicated, slow, bureaucratic and inefficient meaning that few people have access to basic financial services like obtaining loans, savings and payments. We’re trying to build a new financial culture in Africa - not only improving accessibility to financial services, but also making them better - faster, simpler and transparent, and so on. Something we’re specifically passionate about is growing existing businesses that have been working on a smaller scale, and helping them take it to the next level. With that being said, we have no qualification period for businesses looking for loans, and are always looking for new and creative indicators and proxies to evaluate credit worthiness. What’s the division of responsibilities between the offices in Africa and Israel? Generally, the core R&D activities are located in our Israel office (as well as teams in Ukraine & Accra), and all the operational activities are located in Ghana and Uganda. Despite this, we are trying to shift away from the tech vs. operation separation between the countries, and increase the tech-capacity on the Africa side of things (particularly at Fido’s HQ in Ghana). There are so many aspiring and ambitious young developers that are full of motivation, but come with very little experience in building a product to scale, and we see this as an uplifting opportunity for them to learn from our Israeli developers and bring the tech component of Fido to the continent. In terms of the operations, each country is a standalone operation following the guidelines of a global playbook. We have a local team in both Uganda and Ghana, each with a country manager. One of our proudest success stories so far is the fact that one of our first employees ever (and first in Ghana at all) from 9 years ago, Sebastian Quansah, has worked his way up the ladder to be the Managing Director of Fido Ghana and Director of Customer Experience for the whole group. Why is Fido focused on Africa? First of all, there is a huge business opportunity/potential here to build a sustainable financial institution to serve a mass market which does not exist. Africa has the largest working age population that is only set to increase, a history of leap frogging, and a true desire for economic growth. Looking at microfinance, from where we stand, it seems this sector is still reliant on impact money which means it is not sustainable from a business perspective. The business we’ve built and continue to build is sustainable, and our overarching goal is to create something that will outlive us on its own merit. One of the biggest challenges we face is the loss of attention that comes after investors hear the word ‘Africa’. Africa in their eyes is about philanthropy, and we wish they would look beyond this and judge businesses by the merit and untapped opportunities in Africa. Besides the huge business opportunity, we find such purpose and meaning in the work we do everyday. From hearing success stories from local staff, or even from comments on our Facebook posts, the impact we are making in people and small businesses’ lives is tangible and makes every day at work worth it. What is the difference you feel that you’re making in the lives of your clients? Our customers come to us when they have a dream. Maybe that dream is to go to school, maybe it's to have a medical procedure, maybe it's to start or grow a business. We’re proud to say that most of these people get to fulfill this dream with the help of Fido. With the loans we provide, we’re able to take a photographer with old technology, lend him money for a new camera, and eventually see him today with multiple cameras and a whole staff working for him. We see people that are able to get malaria treatment, people with small stores in a village able to expand to six cities, and so on. But our impact doesn’t stop there, and we are very passionate about providing opportunities for growth for those working at Fido. It's in our DNA to provide opportunities for the masses, and we look forward to many years ahead of us of doing just that.

Today is World MSME Day! What are Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises? Whether they are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover or growth trajectory, there is no doubt that MSMEs serve as major drivers of socioeconomic development and prosperity in emerging markets. Most formal jobs are generated by MSMEs, which create 7 out of 10 jobs In emerging markets. In Kenya and Tanzania more than 95% of businesses are MSMEs that generate up to 50% of GDP. In honor of this UN recognized day, we’re thrilled to officially announce Pears Challenge VI, focusing on Digital Financial Inclusion in East Africa. MSMEs are the backbone of East African economies, and this year’s Pears Challenge will seek to support Israeli entrepreneurs in producing financial inclusion enhancing FinTech solutions tailored for MSMEs needs. Addressing MSMEs' unique challenges and improving their access to finance has the power to generate cumulative economic growth and impact individuals and supply chains. Here are a few examples of the need and opportunity: 41% of SMEs in LDCs report access to finance as a major constraint to their growth and development, by comparison to 30% in middle-income countries (MICs) and only 15% in high-income countries (HICs). Africa presents a huge opportunity for FinTech by accounting for up to 70% of the global mobile money transactions' value McKinsey estimates that Africa’s financial-services market could reach $230 B in revenues by 2025 whereas Fintechs in Kenya alone could generate $30 B. If you are an entrepreneur looking to address global financial inclusion challenges and produce solutions for MSMEs in East Africa, we invite you to pre-register today here: https://www.pearsprogram.com/pears-challenge.

We were thrilled to start off 2023 speaking with Ariella Charny, COO and Co-Founder of Albo Climate. Albo is an Israeli startup tackling climate change by making carbon removal scalable. How and why was Albo Climate created? Albo was co-founded by Jacques Amselem, Marco Calderón-Loor and me in 2020 out of a critical need to accelerate and scale up nature based climate solutions using AI technology and remote sensing data. We began this journey by identifying a major bottleneck related to carbon sequestration (removal) in nature-based solutions in diverse natural and agricultural ecosystems around the world. The monitoring of CO2 removal is one the biggest challenges in the nature-based (NBS) solutions market, currently largely lacking the technological capabilities to accurately quantify CO2 sequestration at scale. In most cases, measurements are conducted on the ground using hardware and inefficient tools such as manual soil samples. As a result, nature-based projects often face high costs and poor transparency with buyers. The lack of scalable and reliable solutions for assessing nature based projects results in a lack of confidence and slog in new projects, especially those in agriculture, peatland restoration and blue carbon systems. To solve this obstacle, Albo Climate has developed next-generation technology that automatically measures, monitors, and maps carbon sequestration, offering a cost-effective solution with an unprecedented degree of transparency and accuracy. Today, Albo is a team of 13 dedicated individuals, providing carbon monitoring solutions for 9 customers in 5 continents in the forestry and agricultural sectors. Tell us about your technology. Combining geospatial monitoring and AI expertise, Albo Climate's innovative solution provides customers with high resolution maps displaying carbon data on a per-pixel level. Regardless of the location of the project, we can quantify carbon dynamics without physically needing to be on the ground. Our monitoring solutions help customers to seamlessly quantify carbon stocks in soil and biomass and translate them to carbon credits. Our remote sensing system will help scale nature-based projects, which are proven to play a critical role in mitigating climate change, to the next level. Current uses of Albo Climate’s carbon mapping technology can be seen in monitoring carbon changes within the USA, Canada, Ecuador, Peru, Zambia, and other regions. Our aim is to provide carbon and biodiversity data and insights, and thus support long-term projects that aid the global fight against climate change. With our partners and clients, we aim to help remove or avoid the emission of over 500 tons of CO2 by 2025. Why is Albo interested in working in Sub Saharan Africa? There are several reasons why we’ve identified SSA as one of our target markets. The first is the obvious yet unfortunate truth that too few players are focusing on the carbon potential of emerging markets, which consists of lands that are huge carbon sinks - meaning they absorb more carbon than they emit. With our remote-sensing technology, we can measure this data from afar, allowing land owners to participate in the carbon market, be incentivized to be good stewards of their land, and be compensated as such. We are thrilled to share that we’ve recently signed a contract with a major corporation to develop remote sensing models that predict carbon stocks in nut tree planting projects run by small-holder farmers in Zambia. More generally, we work with companies aggregating farmers (in a B2B or B2B2C model), and hope to enable further democratization of and access to the carbon market. What is Albo’s long term goal and vision? In alignment with the work we’ve been doing over the past three years, our goal is to enable billions of smallholder farmers and landowners to participate and have trust in the carbon market. We aim to scale up our product and make it accessible to good stewards around the world, in diverse ecosystems and bio-climatic zones. We look forward to building strong partnerships with agri- and forestry businesses, as well as with data and cloud companies, to continue growing and developing our product.

Our 2022 Highlights Looking Back at 2022: Why I'm Optimistic and Why I'm Still Concerned A note from Hagit Freud, Managing Director of Pears Program for Global Innovation As 2022 comes to an end, it’s hard for me to reflect on this year without mixing personal moments, organizational achievements, our industry trends, and global events. With this mix, there are definitely mixed feelings, a bitter-sweet taste where the sweet is very sweet and the bitter is very bitter. Looking back and looking ahead, I’m not sure if I’m more optimistic or more concerned. Global events keep many of us awake at night, and 2022 was definitely not the year we were hoping for, with the continued COVID-19 pandemic and its concerning implications, especially for the most vulnerable; the war in Ukraine and continued conflicts worldwide which lost their spotlight; extreme weather events; and the unfolding economic crisis. One might say that the need for innovative solutions has never been more important than right now. But it was the case even without these events and will continue to be in the years to come. I’ve also been awake at night a lot this year because 2022 is the year I became a mother and my concerns and hopes for the future gained a different perspective. Growing inequalities, injustice, and climate change became ever more concerning. But there is also some room for optimism and trends that generate hope. Digital inclusion — the trajectory of mobile and internet penetration, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) is growing, and although COVID-19 caused many setbacks, access to mobile and internet continued to increase. While fully closing the digital gap and getting to this last mile is still quite challenging and will require a lot of effort, it is encouraging to see how digital tools are making our world smaller and far more connected. Digital inclusion not only affects our daily work and the opportunity to work remotely, but it also strengthens partnerships and creates dialogs. It's also about diversifying and democratizing the content we consume, the cultures and opportunities we are all exposed to, and it can break down barriers and change stereotypes and mindsets. And so, I’m optimistic as digital access is access to so much more. Global food systems and regenerative agriculture — 2022 will hopefully be remembered as the year the food system discourse was prioritized globally, following the first global food system summit at the end of 2021, which brought a lot of attention and commitment to the sector. Food systems were further enhanced and tied to the global climate discourse at COP27. One particular trend our team had been extremely enthusiastic about is the growing focus on regenerative agriculture. There are many reasons to be excited about the potential of regenerative practices which are beneficial not only to human consumers but also to the environment at large. One reason we are thrilled about this vision for the agriculture sector is that it positions smallholder and traditional farming across the global south as a solution rather than a problem, and affords small-holder farmers (which are the majority of farmers) a real opportunity to leapfrog into better agriculture practices. And while technology alone is never the answer, we are curious and excited by the role technology will have in advancing regenerative practices. The African Innovation ecosystem continues to grow — while here in Israel the global economic crisis is leading to massive layoffs and a decrease in investment in the high-tech sector, it seems the African Innovation ecosystem is booming and continues to grow. We know that even with the growth we are seeing now, this is only a fraction of the potential and there is so much more that is going to evolve in the coming years (check out – Africa: the Big Deal). For the Pears Program for Global Innovation, it’s been a year of growth and great achievements. We worked with wonderful partners and created meaningful and fruitful collaborations, we deepened our methodologies and strengthened our approach to supporting innovation for development challenges, and supported wonderful companies, technologies, and the people behind them in their journey towards meaningful contributions to address development challenges. At the beginning of 2022, we launched the fifth edition of our flagship venture builder — the Pears Challenge — with a focus on resilient and sustainable agriculture and food systems in Ghana. As the year comes to an end, this year’s challenge has produced five new ventures who are off on their journey, endorsed by partners and with promising technologies we hope to see deployed in the field and creating a positive impact in the coming years. It's also been a year of growth for many of our Pears Challenge alumni and many other wonderful startups we support here in Israel. And while it’s been a catalytic year for the climate and impact discourse here in Israel, with growing interest and investment to those fields and highlights such as PlanetTech World, we are still very far from where we as an ecosystem and as a country should be with regards to international development and delivering on our promise that we are a global outward looking innovation ecosystem. We work with many dedicated, idealistic, and committed partners on this front, and as we look ahead to 2023, we hope to see our field grow and evolve in the year ahead. As part of my work, I love to consult with colleagues and counterparts about how we can improve and what more we can do to advance our vision and achieve our mission. With the recent release of ChatGPT, I decided I might want to see what artificial intelligence (AI) has to say and had a long wordy discussion on the platform about our work and how can we improve it. While I have to admit I was surprised and intrigued by some of the answers, it made me confident that AI is not (maybe yet) ready to replace us humans in the field. (If you are reading this and have some thoughts to share on our work, I’d be happy to discuss it, I’m sure it will be more enlightening). We in the Pears Program for Global Innovation remain committed to building more bridges between the Israeli innovation ecosystem and the international development field and to communities in LMICs, we remain committed to our values, and to fulfilling the potential that further exposure, exchange, and collaborations can achieve. On a personal note, I’m grateful for the team of talented, dedicated, and inspiring individuals I get to work with. I’m grateful for our many partners, in Israel and abroad, and for the possibility to join hands, share causes and achieve more together. I’m grateful for our bright community of DevTech entrepreneurs and startups. I’m often blown away by your creativity and capabilities - let’s continue, there is still much more you can achieve, and we are here to support you. And I’m immensely grateful for our supporters and primarily the Pears Foundation, for allowing us to keep on doing what we love to do. All of you make me look forward to what 2023 will bring and keep me optimistic that we will do good, and it will be good and better. And so, with major concerns and cautious optimism, I wish you all a happy new year.

We’re pleased to spotlight Elisha Rubin, Executive Chairman and Founder of Agri-Light. Agri-Light is a consistent participant of Pears Program's IsraelDev 360 Connect Platform, which they have utilized to expand their connections for their upcoming pilot in Kenya. What is Agri-Light’s story? In March of 2020, I was sitting in my office in Har Hotzvim, Jerusalem’s Hi-Tech Park, as the Corona virus was hitting countries and their populations all over the world. It was a bad time for business; and, of course, a sad time for humanity as more and more people became sick. During this difficult time, I was letting my mind work and wander contemplating my next technology and business steps. At this exact juncture, a large Italian energy company sent out a communication about a subject I knew nothing about---“Agrivoltaics”—the dual sharing of land for both energy generation via solar panels; and crop cultivation within the photovoltaic setting. I was intrigued about agrivoltaics, as a person passionate about agriculture and clean energy. I am a “gentleman farmer” living on a Moshav for the past 26 years. I spent about two months researching the subject and I decided to begin the process of establishing a company focused on bringing the most advanced agrivoltaic technology to the world. I was fortunate to recruit an experienced team led by experienced entrepreneurs and experts in the fields of renewable energy, data science, sustainability and environment, agronomy, economics, IoT, optimization and regulations. Tell us about your technology! Agri-Light has designed and developed its patent pending “Smart Agri-PV” (SAPV) System, which moves PV panels both horizontally and angularly to control plant sunlight and shading and optimize crop cultivation and electricity generation. The innovative technology is based on a unique mechanical engineering design and state-of-the art agronomic data analytics. The system employs IoT sensors to measure micro-environmental and environmental factors in real time, including sun radiation and position, temperature, humidity, pressure, rain, wind speed, and soil moisture. The data collected by the sensors is processed by an Artificial Intelligence-based cloud platform which also incorporates database information on the optimal environmental conditions for each crop type. Innovative algorithms generate information about electricity generation and give instructions to a software-based controller which moves the PV panels to maintain the micro-environmental factors in their optimal values. SAPV will also be used to activate and optimize irrigation in the most water efficient way possible. Agri-Light is developing a real time application that will provide both needed information to farmers and machine learning-based predictions that can help to optimize crop quality and production. The SAPV system is focused on fruit and nut tree crop production optimization and is suitable for all environments - including for arid/desert settings. By optimizing production of electricity and agricultural output on the same land, our technologies reduce competition for land use, while maximizing total profits for both farmers and solar developers. How did you first target emerging markets? From the beginning of Agri-Light’s journey it was clear that our aim was to build a sustainable and profitable company, but at the same time, an enterprise that would make a significant impact in promoting food, water, and energy security. We therefore knew that emerging markets would be an important focus of ours. As a young company we first established a working demonstration site for our Smart Agri-PV funded by the Ministry of Energy. From there we won a tender to establish 12 commercial pilots of approximately 10 dunam each to be established on a range of different fruit and nut orchards spanning from the arid environment of the Arava to Israel’s northern Mediterranean borders. However, from almost the beginning of Agri-Light, we have been in contact with interested parties in Africa, including established representatives in Kenya who have become loyal partners for us. We are now in negotiation to establish our SAPV system on a 13.5-hectare site 60 Kilometers outside of Nairobi. Agri-Light also received an additional grant from the Ministry of Energy to initiate a pilot around a Bedouin village in the Negev. Our goal is to establish partnerships throughout the Middle East and Africa, as these emerging markets can derive great benefit from Agri-Light’s agrivoltaic technology solutions. Why is your technology beneficial to developing countries? Farmers worldwide are struggling to make a living as climate change and economic factors make agriculture business challenging. This is most certainly the case in emerging markets such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Agri-Light’s innovative agrivoltaic solutions will allow farmers to both optimize their crop production, their management and efficiency of water, and to partake in the additional revenue that will come from generating electricity. Agri-Light's business model for farmers in developing countries can be offered as a joint partnership: the farmer provides his land for the agrivoltaic installation and shares the profits of electricity generated and sales to the national grid; or the farmer can receive electricity for his own use at a discounted price (off-grid). Most importantly, Agri-Light's agrivoltaic system benefits farmers’ crop production and water management, positively affecting agriculture profitability. Where do you see Agri-Light in the future? In the near future, Agri-Light hopes to establish its first projects in Kenya where we have invested much time into building appropriate relationships and contacts within the country. We hope in the coming years to bring market expansion to other areas of East Africa and other regions of this vast continent, as well. Additionally, I envision Agri-Light establishing “strategic” commercial pilot projects in high potential markets (such as Europe, USA, and Israel) as the agrivoltaic market continues to emerge. We aim for Agri-Light to become a technology and business leader in this space, setting us up a strong, sustainable foundation for further growth and profitability. Specifically for Africa, as well as Israel, is the vision to establish self-sustaining agri-energy communities that bring economic stability to them; and promote food, water, and energy security.

For our 2022 June Newsletter, we spotlighted Avishay Sternleib, VP Global Sales at N-Drip Gravity Micro Irrigation. What is N-Drip's story? N-Drip was created to face some of today's greatest problems - climate change and the global water crisis. Eighty-five percent of the world’s irrigated fields utilize flood irrigation, an ancient, unsustainable method. Flood irrigation wastes water, suppresses crop yields, and leads to contamination of both groundwater and surface water. Flood is also responsible for a very high proportion of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. To counter this, N-Drip was founded by Prof. Uri Shani, former Israel Water Commissioner, with a vision to end flood irrigation globally and by that mitigate climate change hazards. N-Drip works to bring the world a precise, gravity-based irrigation revolution! Tell us about N-Drip's technology! N-Drip’s patented gravity-powered micro-irrigation solution allows farmers to easily and inexpensively convert their flood-irrigated fields into N-Drip irrigated ones. N-Drip irrigation requires no external energy source nor filtration, and runs only on ever-renewable, always available gravity. Simple to use and affordable, it’s the most energy-efficient irrigation technology. Our revolutionary system saves farmers up to 70 percent of the water needed to grow crops, produces yields as much as 45 percent greater, reduces carbon emissions, and largely eliminates water pollution from fertilizer runoff. We also offer the N-Drip Connect™ - a decision support system that generates actionable insights for growers, such as irrigation and fertilization recommendations, and monitoring of water stress and nitrogen levels. With this system, N-Drip’s team of professionals are able to provide growers with support based on real-time data. Why is your technology beneficial to small holder farmers/users in developing countries? N-Drip irrigation requires no external energy source nor filtration, and runs only on a component no one in this world lacks: gravity. The simplicity and affordability, along with low energy usage make this a fantastic tool for small holder farmers and individuals in developing countries to use. Additionally, N-Drip technology contributes to improving farmers' resilience to climate change. Many farmers in water-stressed areas will rely on rain to irrigate their crops, taking a risk with the changing climate. Because of the unpredictability, this will oftentimes leading to crop failure and loss of profits. By implementing N-Drip's simple solution, farmers have more flexibility, reliability, and a decreased risk of crop failure. It also allows farmers to use less water for their crops, so when droughts do come, they will be more resilient to any fluctuations in water supply. Plus, by converting to N-Drip, farmers can start seeing immediate benefits such as using less fertilizer (which is costly and contributes to GHG emissions). With greater yields, farmers also gain the opportunity to become more prosperous while reducing water consumption and reducing current GHG emissions by up to 50%. This is better for the farmer, and better for the environment Where do you see N-Drip in the future? In the past, water-saving alternatives were too expensive or complicated. Our mission is to lead the effort in solving the global water shortage, by providing the ultimate alternative to flood irrigation, giving farmers access to precise, cost-efficient, and sustainable solutions. We have chosen to lead a profound change in a 5,000-year-old industry, and implement the technology that will result in the end of flood irrigation, and we believe that N-Drip’s technology will be the dominant practice of irrigation. We hope to see many more irrigators shift to this technology in the future, and our job is to ensure we play a role in this transition. In doing so, we are providing a significant response to the climate crisis and helping farmers and irrigators use water effectively.