The Caribbean Youth Virtual Business Incubator is a one-of-a-kind resourcing and accelerating platform to support youth in agriculture networking and use of know-how for entrepreneurial development. It exists to:

1. Respond to the request of over 30 Caribbean youth entrepreneurs from more than 15 countries for a resource platform supporting youth start-ups and enterprises.
2. Address a number of information, know-how and how-to barriers that youth entrepreneurs face.
3. Foster senior, peer and near-peer mentoring which are proven, effective techniques for actioning learning and application of good practices.
4. Build more effective channels of communication, motivation, idea-generation and networking between youth and youth entrepreneurs.
5. Emphasize that youth entrepreneurship, particularly in agriculture, is of strategic importance to the future of Caribbean economies.
6. Be a place where development organisations, businesses, governments, civil society organisations and individuals can help young people get started in business.

The development objective for the Caribbean Youth Virtual Business Incubator (VBI) was set by 25 youth entrepreneurs from fourteen different countries in the Caribbean region at the Dialogue for Development: Youth in Agribusiness Forum in Grenada, 2016. At this event which was supported under the 10th EDF Agriculture Policy Programme (APP), Caribbean youth entrepreneurs collectively identified a virtual platform supportive of entrepreneurial and business information and knowledge exchange, and networking among youth as number one in their top ten requests from agricultural development organisations in the Caribbean Region.

The platform represents the response of partners the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, the Caribbean Agricultural Forum for Youth (CAFY) and the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CTA) to this request of youth.

The Caribbean Virtual Business Incubator is a third-generation business incubator offering a range of business development services with focus on the creation and operation of networks to access resources and knowledge, linking the incubator and it’s users with the innovation ecosystem in which they operate. To accelerate youth entrepreneurship and enterprise development it focuses on information and knowledge products that facilitate more savvy navigation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the participating Caribbean countries.