Startup Spotlight: Lebanon-Based Agritech YY Regen Aims To Revolutionize The Country’s Agriculture Sector

Coming up next is a profile on one of the six new companies that have been decided to be in the second version of PepsiCo’s Nursery Gas pedal Program: MENA Manageability Version a yearly program to help provincial business visionaries or new companies that are handling an assortment of environment related difficulties.

The monetary slump that shook Lebanon in 2020 exacerbated an energy emergency that had previously been a significant reason for the worry for the country, and amidst such a situation, it’s nothing unexpected that the nation’s cultivating organizations have been hit hard. “The onset of the Lebanese economic crisis, coupled with the escalating fuel prices worldwide due to geopolitical instabilities, worsened the energy security situation, which led to a significant unmet demand in Lebanon for access to energy,” Hasan Jaafar, co-founder and COO of Beirut-based agritech and renewable energy startup YY Regen, says.. “This underserved need prompted us, a team of passionate engineers, to introduce an alternative solution to the market. Our goal was to specifically address the issue of high capital costs associated with fixed solar systems, and the reliance on polluting and expensive diesel generators.”

YY Regen was in this way sent off in May 2021 by Jaafar alongside Amer Khayyat and Dr. Munira Khayyat. The startup’s vision was to change how farming endeavors are controlled, watered, and developed using reasonable and less pollutive arrangements. Its administrations, consequently, are spread across three verticals: environmentally friendly power arrangements, maintainable agribusiness, and solid and reasonable water arrangements.

With regards to environmentally friendly power, YY Regen offers administrations, for example, sunlight based photovoltaic frameworks as well as biogas frameworks. In the mean time, its supportable horticulture arrangements incorporate vertical cultivating and beekeeping, while its reasonable water arrangements see it offering further developed water system frameworks and sun based water siphoning. “YY ReGen thus offers a holistic approach that addresses multiple challenges in the agriculture sector,” Jaafar says. “Our solutions provides efficiency, sustainability, and resilience, and empowers our customers to achieve long-term success, while minimizing environmental impact. As for the technologies we adopt, the products come with internet of things (IoT) functionalities that allow for remote system monitoring and control, resulting in enhanced system performance and uptime. We are also developing the first generative pre-trained transformer-powered chatbot trained in addressing troubleshooting and technical difficulties faced by our customers. This feature will give us a great advantage in our scaleup phase, as we anticipate it would decrease maintenance costs.”

Yet, assuming there is one specific part of YY Regen’s administrations that its group invests heavily in, it is in their case that the startup is “the solitary organization in the MENA locale to give on-request environmentally friendly power as-a-administration.” As per Jaafar, a methodology empowers clients to profit from clean energy, without agonizing over the underlying capital speculation.

One such offering is the ReGen-R8, an on-demand solar energy system based on the energy-as-a-service (EaaS) model. “Our focus was primarily on farmers and rural businesses who lacked the means to afford traditional solar systems,” Jaafar says. “With ReGen-R8, we aimed to provide a cheaper, cleaner, and capital-free option for accessing clean power. Our approach involved removing the complexities and uncertainties typically associated with electricity provision by adopting a customer-centric mindset. We prioritized understanding the challenges faced by our customers, and delivering tailored solutions to meet their specific needs. Our EaaS model enables easy and seamless access to clean power, empowering farmers, and rural businesses to meet their energy requirements, without the burden of upfront capital investments, or the environmental drawbacks of traditional energy sources.”

In a bid to add further monetary adaptability for its clients, YY Regen’s all’s administrations are likewise presented on a rental business plan of action. ” We charge clients just for the power consumed, and offer two installment choices accessible: a decent month to month membership expense, or pay-as-you-use,” Jaafar makes sense of.

With over $175,000 from various startup programs as well as $70,000 from personal funds already under its belt, Jaafar hopes. that being chosen to be a part of the second edition of PepsiCo’s Greenhouse Accelerator Program will allow YY Gen to further prove its credibility, as well as to validate its innovative approach. “The program’s objectives and benefits perfectly matched our business needs and goals, and we realized it would be a win-win if we were to participate,” he says. “One of the most important business targets we hope to accomplish is sustainable scaleup and market expansion. From the product side, we hope to implement product refinements particularly the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot and other remote-control features. On the business side, we seek to strengthen our industry partnerships within the PepsiCo ecosystem, and we hope to increase our revenues by at least 30% by developing effective marketing strategies and consumer engagement initiatives to raise awareness about the benefits of our solution.”

And while scaling and improving will remain a key element of YY Gen’s plans for the next few months, the startup’s end goal is crystal clear for Jaafar and his team. “We aspire to expand both nationally and internationally, while maintaining our commitment to sustainability and customer satisfaction,” Jaafar declares. “Ultimately, our goal is to contribute to a more sustainable food system, positively impacting the health and well-being of consumers and the environment in the MENA region.”

Pooja: