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The first startup hackathon in cooperation with the Czech Republic took place in the Ethiopian capital

Foreign missions Startups
27.10. 2025
line-arrow The first startup hackathon in cooperation with the Czech Republic took place in the Ethiopian capital

In the days 10. The first edition of the AgriHack 2025 hackathon took place on 11 October 2025 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the first ever Czech-Ethiopian startup hackathon connecting agriculture, technology and fin-tech.

27.10.2025 | Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Tradesmen of the Czech Republic (AMSP ČR)

The AgriHack 2025 event was held in cooperation with AMSP CR and partners Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (AACCSA), Businness Innovation Centre (BIC Ethiopia), WeVenture and CzechInvest, institutions supporting the development of innovation and startup ecosystem.

The Hackathon attracted over 70 participants from young entrepreneurs, innovators, IT specialists and university students. A total of 16 teams competed over two days to find the best solutions in three thematic areas.

The thematic challenges were the Small Farmers Challenge, the Agricultural Market Distribution Challenge and the Fintech & E-commerce Challenge. The hackathon aims to foster creativity, technological innovation and the emergence of practical solutions that can improve the functioning of agricultural markets and smallholder farmers’ access to digital tools and finance in Ethiopia.

Participants of the hackathon in Addis Ababa | Photo: AMSP

The Hackathon represented the culmination of several months of preparation, during which the Czech partners trained AACCSA and BIC staff on how to organize such an event, what its main objective was, and how to provide intensive mentoring for participants to create viable solutions to the pressing problems facing Ethiopia within 48 hours. The challenges were set based on thorough market research and consultation with Ethiopian partners, to reflect the local existing situation.

On Saturday 11 October the main “Pitch Event” took place with the final presentations of the teams and the announcement of the winners. The expert jury included representatives of all partner organizations, including the representative of AMSP ČR Mgr. et Mgr. Kristýna Horne and a representative of CzechInvest, Mr. Ivo Denemark, as well as the co-founder of the weVenture hub Mr. Noel Daniel, the team leader of BIC Ethiopia Mr. Oliver Petzoldt and the CEO of the startup Ashewa Technology Solution S.C Mr. Daniel Bekele.

The winning team of the AgriHack 2025 hackathon | Photo: AMSP

The winning teams received not only financial rewards, but also the opportunity to take advantage of mentoring by Czech experts who will help them in the coming months with project development, business strategy and marketing. The prizes were presented to the winners by the Deputy Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Ethiopia, Mr. Miroslav Bálint.

AgriHack 2025 winning teams:
1st place: team FINCONNECT
2nd place: team AGRILO
3rd place: team FUSION VENTURES
Jury Prize: team DORO APP

In addition to the hackathon, during the one-week mission (6-12 October 2025), a team of Czech experts organized a series of training sessions for Ethiopian partners on building an ecosystem for start-ups, the organization and objectives of the hackathon from initial preparations to the creation of a start-up community, training of start-up mentors to work with the target group and the creation of a media plan and a successful communication strategy with the start-up community, led by Sofia Deliu and Tomas Bena from the CzechInvest agency. The delegation also met with ACCCSA CEO Mr. Ato Shibeshi Bettemariam, visited local startup hubs BIC and weVenture and met with Czech Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr. Miroslav Kosko.

Hackathon AgriHack 2025 in Ethiopia | Photo: AMSP

However, the project does not end with this action, AMSP CR will now work with ACCSSA and BIC to develop a strategic plan so that the partner organizations will be able to include this type of activity in their portfolio of services and implement it on a regular one-year basis without Czech intervention. The project is implemented within the framework of the Aid for Trade programme under the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, and with the support of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Addis Ababa and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

Tomas Bena

Marketing Manager of the Technology Incubation project

tomas.bena@czechinvest.gov.cz

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