The winning startups use digital tools to offer solutions to small-scale and large-scale farmers alike in the countries they operate. From ThriveAgric calling its breakthrough technology the Agriculture operating system, to DigiCow focusing on Livestock, below is a summary of the winning startups.

• Thrive Agric: is boosting farmer incomes and production with the agriculture operating system.
• DigiCow: uses digital tools to modernize production on small-scale dairy farms
• Brastorne Enterprises: develops digital technology for feature phones necessary for narrowing Africa’s rural digital divide.

According to Adesuwa Ifedi, the senior vice president of Africa programs, Heifer International. At this time when Africa is facing food-related challenges, it is inspiring for young African startup champions to focus on an agriculture-led future providing farmers with innovations they need.

Adding to that, Adesuwa noted that:

“We launched this competition in 2021, challenging African youths to bring us innovations poised to provide the positive disruption our farmers urgently need. ThriveAgric, DigiCow and Brastorne are more than ready to meet the moment,”

Adesuwa Noted

As winners of the 2022 AYuTe Africa Challenge, the startup trio will receive a sizeable monetary investment. This includes a total of USD 1.5 million in grants, along with ongoing support from a team of expert advisers, and accomplished business veterans that will help them translate their funding to working expansion strategies.

The awarding is part of Heifer International’s commitment to support young entrepreneurs developing affordable tech innovations as they work to scale their businesses. By that, it makes new services and technologies available to African farmers that leverage them to overcome long-standing challenges.

Additionally, this attracts a new generation to unlock the huge potential of agriculture on the continent, just like all three of the 2022 winners help African farmers by providing solutions to their everyday challenges.

In-depth solutions offered by the winning startups

Thrive Agric

ThriveAgric addresses a key challenge for small-scale farmers in Africa. The lack of access to finance, technical advice, business skills, and market opportunities affects most farmers across the continent.

To address this, Thrive Agric uses a proprietary Agriculture OS (operating system) to actively support over 500,000 across the 22 Nigerian states with insights that improve their production and profits. With a support team of 2,000 field agents that reach the farmers directly, Thrive Agric strives to increase farmer profitability as the CEO asserted.

“We’ve developed the technologies, strategies and partnerships we believe can build the largest network of productive, profitable farmers Africa has ever seen”

said Uka Eje, Thrive Agric’s co-founder and CEO.

“ThriveAgric’s 500,000 farmers are already producing and earning much more than the average Nigerian farmer. Investors are responding to our potential and this prestigious award from Heifer International will accelerate our plans to expand across the continent.”

Added Uka

DigiCow

DigiCow is helping small-scale African dairy operations increase productivity with technology that provides free access to livestock management experts. The startup links farmers to skilled, qualified veterinarians, artificial insemination providers, and feed supply services, all through their mobile phones.

According to one of the co-founders-Wanja, DigiCow is a solution built out of personal experiences with over 15 years of interaction with small-scale dairy farmers as she said.

“I grew up watching my mom struggle to get our cows to produce enough milk, and I’ve spent 15 years working with small-scale dairy farmers, so I know the challenges farmers face,”

said Peninah Wanja, co-founder of Nairobi-based DigiCow.

“That’s why it’s been so exciting to see 60,000 farmers—many of them women—now using our DigiCow apps to become more profitable and productive. With this new support from Heifer International, I’m confident we can expand our reach to help small-scale dairy farmers across the continent.”

Wanja Added

Brastorne

Brastorne’s apps, such as mAgri, give farmers access to farming information, markets and short-term finance using the capabilities of any feature phone. This is through default services such as SMS and interactive voice technology.

The Brastorne mobile service Mpotsa (“Ask me”) provides rural unconnected mobile users with localized information, and Vuka harnesses USSD technology to allow users on any phone create profiles, add friends, create chat groups, and more.

These two technologies have helped farmers realize a 250% increase in their yields and achieve 85% savings in communication and information access. By recruitment, the Brastorne consists of 100% youth that are employed to run monitor, and support farmers using the two technologies.

“About 80% of Africans cannot afford smartphones or expensive data — but they do have feature phones, and Brastorne is ensuring those phones connect farmers, youth and women to the resources they need”

said Martin Stimela, co-founder and CEO of Brastorne.

“We look forward to working with Heifer International to connect the rural poor with fair access to markets, information and community.”

Added Martin

In summary, ThriveAgric, DigiCow, and Brastorne are a manifestation of Agritech startups in progress. With fresh funding, the trio of startups could soon expand from their home countries, and over services across the continent.

Over 250 entries from 20+ African countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia, Mali, South Africa, and Benin were received for the summit. The live pitch is kindly sponsored by Enza Capital, Paystack, Raise, and Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMUA).

The 14 finalists below represent five countries from diverse sectors such as fintech, agritech, health tech, and enterprise.

The following 14 startups selected to pitch live at the summit represent over 5 countries with selections from multiple sectors such as Agritech, Fintech, Health tech, and Enterprise as below.

Aiponics, Inc (Zambia): designed Hrvst – a digital marketplace aimed at fighting food insecurity in Africa by tackling deficiencies in the food market on the supply and demand side.

FreshSource (Egypt) is leveraging technology and data to streamline the agricultural value chain to improve food security in the MENA region.

FaidiHR LLC (Kenya) is developing an innovative cloud-based HR and payroll solution for SMEs to streamline complex payroll processes.  

Goodtalent Corporation Ltd (Nigeria) developed an innovative HR technology for global companies to source, vet, and run compliant payrolls for African talents.

Glover Technologies (Nigeria) is developing wallet services for powering Web3 commerce across Africa.

Kiotapay (Kenya) is an end-to-end real estate platform that automates payment and business flow to address the housing problems for African SMEs and households.

Lendha (Nigeria) is building a credit-led financial operating system using artificial intelligence to support the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Africa.

PesaChoice (Rwanda) developed the Midas Human resource (HR) software, and loan solution to address the gap in access to finance for African SMEs and corporations.

Snark Health (Kenya) is creating a funding mechanism for patients to improve access to healthcare.

Sendstack (Nigeria) developed an app-based solution that replaces instant deliveries with pre-scheduled deliveries to increase financial stability and on-the-road efficiency for riders.

Trade Lenda (Nigeria) is a digital financial service platform supporting Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to access finance within 6 hours with zero collaterals.

Tripesa (East Africa) is a no-code platform that offers payment solutions for Africa’s travel and tourism sector by helping SMEs to digitize their businesses. 

Vesti Technologies Inc (Nigeria) is simplifying financial and legal services accessibility for immigrants in their host countries.

Zofi Cash (Uganda) is a salary advance platform developed to address the challenges of financial emergencies before Payday.

The Africa Startup Summit, now in its fifth edition, continues to recognize tech start-ups looking to raise pre-seed, seed, and series A funding to solve real challenges.

Andrew Fassnidge, Director of Africa Tech Summit shared that: “Pitch Live is an important part of Africa Tech Summit in showcasing new ventures and connecting investors, founders and key stakeholders. Last year’s edition resulted in several ventures closing funding rounds, so we are very excited to see what happens this year and would like to thank all our supporting partners for making it happen.”

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared with the Tech Point Magazine team.

CHIL Food Center is a B2B AI-powered e-commerce platform that simplifies the supply chain directly with food suppliers and food retailers in Europe, Middle East & Africa. It allows food retailers to purchase the food they need to retail now and pay for it later while paying the supplier upfront.

With the new funding, the company is seeking to rapidly expand its operations through a “Buy Now Pay Later” checkout experience for retailers purchasing from food suppliers. 

Speaking about the expansion, Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa, a co-founder and shareholder in the company, confirms that Solerchil is currently in the final stages of processing the relocation and has plans to hire in Dover.

“Delaware is the ideal choice for a startup like Solerchil Technologies. The state has favourable regulations which offer tech startups a unique advantage for developing innovative financial solutions. It’s a sweet spot for our Buy Now, Pay Later solution,” says Nabuuma. 

She adds, “The availability of several opportunities, including potential investments, makes the state perfect for our new businesses.” 

Besides the new headquarters, CHIL Food Center will continue its operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in line with its mission to simplify the food supply chain between suppliers and retailers. 

Currently, the Food Center has over 300 merchants making use of the Buy Now Pay Later solution daily, and thousands of buyers transacting on the platform.

The proceeds of the pre-seed funding will be used towards further developing its digital credit technology and extending its services across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, supporting the growth of the B2B commerce space.

The Dover offices will be the company’s hub for business support, marketing, and implementation. The company also plans to recruit more staff for its Lille and Dubai offices ahead of a $15M seed funding round.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared to the Tech Point Magazine team.

The partnership was launched at Sylvia Agro Park in Zirobwe Town Council, Uganda. In attendance, the EzyAgric CEO, George William Luyinda, the Airtel Uganda Marketing director, Henry Njoroge, and the founder of Victoria Seeds, Ms. Josephine Okot asserted the need for improving agriculture standards by leveraging the current digital era.

Agriculture is a very big thing and we picked it because there is capital for you to this which is land and the people. We as Airtel came to this to ensure that our subscribers receive the best agronomy advice from the best and that why we chose EzyAgric.

Said  Njoroge Henry Kamau – Marketing Director, Airtel Uganda

To access the advisory services, a farmer must dial *163#, and follow prompts to subscribe. Once subscribed, you can choose to receive weekly advisory content either through the EzyAgric App for Smartphone holders or through SMS.

• Dial *163# 
• Select Airtel Cares 
• Select Agriculture 
• Select Preferred Channel to receive the Agricultural Content, i.e. (1: Receiving Via SMS. 2: receive Agricultural content via the EzyAgric App) 
• Select Preferred languages
• Select Preferred Crop 
• Select 1 to subscribe and 2 to cancel. 

If a farmer uses the EzyAgric App, free 500MBs will be sent per month for use on all in-app content. With the incentive, it becomes easier for farmers to access farming information without spending on data purchases.

At EzyAgric, we believe in creating endless farming Possibilities, and the only way to do that is through digitization of agriculture. We have all seen what digitization has done to all mega industries.

Farmers will have access to advice from a range of resources that are available through our long list of extension workers within several districts and the list of products that are available on the EzyAgric App from certified suppliers like Grainpulse, Victoria Seeds, Bukoola, East African Seeds, Naseco among others

Says George William Luyinda – The Chief Executive Officer, EzyAgric

This Advisory content includes Tips for better harvests, Weather information, weed management, pest and disease control, and post-harvest tips. All content is accessible in 6 languages, English, Runyakitara, Luganda, Luo, Lumasaba, and Lugisu as preset by the user.

The detailed crop specific advisory will include:

• Plant protection (Pest and Disease Management): Tips on Pest and Disease scouting, monitoring, IPM (Integrated Pest Management), including the use of cultural, biological, and chemical control measures against pests and diseases. 
• Plant Nutrition: crop-specific fertiliser application includes recommendable fertilisers, rates, and application methods needed at different crop cycle and watering requirement schedules. 
• Seed selection Management and planting techniques. 
• Post-Harvest handling. 
• Weather information. 
• General crop management Agronomy. 
• Direct contact with the Agronomist. 

For many years, farmers could not reach their optimum potential because of limited extension, access to seeds and lack of alignment of information on when to plant, what to plant, where to buy inputs, and at what price.

I am glad EzyAgric has been able to capitalize this and made it possible to share agronomical information to farmers through their digitized platform

Said Josephine Okot, the Founder and CEO Victoria Seeds

Dubbed Zwart Cyber, the new security-centric division will offer safety by protecting and providing guidance for prospective clients’ enterprise networks, system-connected devices, clouds, and databases.

Cybersecurity is now on the front burner in today’s digital world as more and more organizations are experiencing breaches and expending billions of dollars to protect their network.

Worldwide spending on information security and risk management technology and services is forecast to grow 12.4% to reach $150.4 billion in 2021, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. Security and risk management spending grew 6.4% in 2020.

Gartner pegged growth in spending across all areas of security, including applications, the cloud, data, identity access management, infrastructure protection, integrated risk management, network security equipment, security services, and consumer security software. But the largest beneficiary will be security services with spending on hardware support, implementation, and outsourced services reaching almost $72.5 billion this year.

Commenting on the launch of ZwartCyber, the founder and CEO of the startup Nelson Tosin Ajulo said that data breached and 3rd party cyber risks have prevailed more in recent years. With over 300,000 new pieces of malware created every day, users need to be away since most of them are designed to steal data and install spyware, adware, trojans, and viruses on end-user devices.

With many people working remotely, it further increases the risks of any organisation’s security apparatus being compromised. This is why we are launching a cybersecurity arm to offer the best digital security for startups, businesses and government at the most affordable price.

Nelson Tosin – Founder and CEO Zwart Tech

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared with the Tech Point Magazine team.

Much as the Chipper Cash co-founder and CEO Ham Serunjogi declined to confirm the company’s valuation, it’s believed that after the Series C funding round, Chipper Cash is now the most valued African private venture. According to the company, its valuation is not a top priority, but services offered to customers remain the main goal towards future growth.

One of the things I’ve been emphasizing both internally and publicly is that our company’s valuation has not been a priority for us. It’s not something we’re aiming toward. The fact that we have a product that has an impact on our users is what motivates us.”

Serunjogi explained.

Prior to the new funding round, In November 2020, Chipper Cash raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Ribbit Capital and Jeff Bezos’s investment firm Bezos Expeditions. Also, in June 2020, the company had raised $13.8 million in a Series A round from Deciens Capital and other investors. This means the company has raised over $143.8 million in a single-year timeframe.

Founded in 2018 by Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, Chipper Cash confirmed in late 2020 that it was recording over 80,000 transactions per day and has over 3 million active users on its mobile platform. The app operates in over 8 countries including the United Kingdom, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Rwanda, and South Africa.

Currently, the app offers borderless money transfer services and crypto assets with hopes of increasing its workforce by 50% to 300 with the new acquired funding. Also, the company is in talks with Nigerian regulators to have its investment service launch in Nigeria, and then Uganda, before rolling out to other regions by the end of 2021.

“Nigeria is home to Africa’s most interesting and thriving IT scene. And it can be directly attributed to CBN for building and supporting an atmosphere that enables startups like ours and others like Flutterwave to thrive,”

Concluded Serunjogi

The first innovation challenge pitch competition run in August 2020 and this year, Startup Uganda borrowed a leaf of the previous year challenge categories for innovators to solve key issues to the hearts of the Challenge’s Anchor partners who include UNCDF, Ensibuuko, Makerere Innovation and Incubation Center (MIIC), FSDU, among others per challenge category.

• Financial Health for MSMEs with Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSDU) as an anchor partner.
• Leveraging Last Mile Distribution Networks with Mobipay & Ensibuuko as anchor partners.
• Digital Literacy with Danish Refugee Council as an anchor partner.

Prior to the pitching competition, a call for applications was made four weeks before 150 startups successfully applied and 10 startups qualified for the Bootcamp stage. Working with United Social Ventures, Makerere Innovation and Incubation Center, Starthub Africa and Iventure Africa, the teams underwent a virtual 3-day Bootcamp.

On the final day of the Bootcamp, the 10 teams pitched to panels of judges consisting of UNCDF members and the respective anchor partners per category. Through the process, teams were grouped into 3’s per competition track and these included:

• Kanzu Code, Pata Sente and Chap Chap under Financial Health for MSMEs.
• Agricycle, Famunera and Cabral Tech under Leveraging Last Mile Distribution Networks.
• Digital Woman, ZOORA and Backspace Ivy under Digital Literacy.

Per Category, only 1 startup idea emerged victorious with $20,000 in funding and a pilot phase by anchor partners. Non-Winning teams will as well participate in a pilot phase to best craft their ideas in partnership with UNCDF and anchor partners per competition track.

Digital Literacy – Winner Presented by Resource Innovation Lab, and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC)

Winner: Backspace Ivy

Backspace Ivy is a female IT consultation startup and social innovation enterprise specialising in online digital training for underserved groups of people like Girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), youth, orphans, refugees, disabled, women and semi-urban youth.

The startup aims at increasing the digital inclusion rate by making digital education accessible through short courses. Backspace Ivy won the Digital Literacy track against Digital Woman and Zoora which will now work with the Danish Refugee Council for a Pilot phase to fine-tune their ideas into successful innovations in Uganda.

Financial health for SMES – Presented by Innovation Village & Anchor Partners (FSD Uganda, UNCDF) – chosen based on how they can actually impact SMEs

Winner: Pata Sente

Pata Sente is a Fintech startup that specialises in buying goods for customers and they pay back later on credit through a Web or mobile application interface. The startup allows businesses to pay suppliers in cash as they wait for a payment from their customers who may delay to pay them due to contract or work conditions which often affect Small and mediaum sized enterprises (SMES). So, with a solution to favor small and growing businesses from debt, Pata Sente beat Kanzu Code and Chap Chap for $20,000 in funding to boost their innovation.

All teams to under the financial health track for SMEs will work with FSDSU for a Pilot Phase at a more increased depth to help them grow, innovate, and may be find more potential investors (for non-winning teams) to help their ideas grow into real-world solutions for small and medium businesses in Uganda.

Last Mile Distribution – Presented by Makerere Innovation Incubator Center (MIIC) & Anchor Partners (Ensibuuko, UNCDF, Mobipay)

Winner: Famunera

Agrotech is a fast-growing venture in Uganda, and Famunera is one of the fresh startups that aim at making agriculture affordable and accessible for the general population. Famunera is a virtual marketplace that allows farmers to buy high-quality farm inputs and have them delivered to their doorstep or farm location across Uganda. The startup uses an eCommerce website, call centre, and mobile USSD code *284# approach from which customers can access and buy genuine farm inputs.

With Ensibuuko and Mobipay as notable startups that have been working on last mile distribution for 3+ years and have experience on what farmers and customers want, how they want, and when they want, Famunera as the winning startup idea was selected on visibility, validity grounds and how the solution can be experimented to reach the underserved community and farmers in Uganda.

Also, factors that make last mile distribution effective like crop insurance, climate-smart agriculture, vertical farming, agents and field centres were considered as services that can be used as plant doctors to elevate customer levels and link with existing service providers like mobile network operators.

Non-Winning teams in the category, Cabral tech and Agricycle will receive free field training from Ensibuuko starting 24th May 2021 and also gain access to special packages that will make their solutions effectively work in the real world.

Now, a Ugandan-based startup Imuka Access has made supporting SMEs its primary objective by helping them raise money and link interested investors to them. To steadily achieve this, they have a regional event dubbed Pitchfest which is organized across the country for businesses to pitch to a panel of potential local investors.

Occasionally, Imuka Access organizes capacity building workshops and events (Business Plan Master Classes) to equip these local businesses with knowledge of what investors are looking for before putting their money in a venture. They make sure these businesses have done due-deligience and have the necessary documents and are fully registered business with the Uganda Registry Services Bureau (URSB), and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). 

A Look at Imuka’s Pitchfest Western Uganda Edition

The very first Regional Pitchfest was the Western Edition that was held at the New Fort View Resort in Fort portal, Uganda in the middle of February 2021.

Last year, the Pitchfest held in Kampala recorded a success rate of 75%, which aroused interests from entrepreneurs in the whole country and thus the current plan to hold Regional Pitchfests to cater to the entrepreneurs in all regions of Uganda.

Pitchfest Western edition was for entrepreneurs in the Western Region of Uganda and it attracted entrepreneurs from Kabarole, Fort Portal, and those in Kampala but based in fort portal attended online.

The event was successfully attended by Uganda Investment Authority(UIA), Banks like Finance Trust, Centenary Bank, Stanbic Bank, Private Sector Foundation, among other notable institutional financiers and investor organizations. Imuka Access partnered with Kabarole Research Centre (KRC) to set up a regional accelerator and business incubation hub to sustainably continue supporting the entrepreneurs of western Uganda.

To make the experience more worthwhile for the locals, Imuka Access partnered with regional Radio stations to provide business packages for entrepreneurs to market their products and services. For clarity, Euraka Radio helped live-streamed the Pitchfest Western Edition.  

Life FM hosted the business experts on a Business Round Table talk show to advise entrepreneurs on how to run their businesses after the COVID-19 wave and KRC Radio hosted Imuka on regular basis to communicate and inform the locals about the available activities of the Pitchfest including Grant Proposal and Business Plan Master Classes to enable them to have the necessary documents for financing.

The Pitchfest Western Edition was a success with 12 out of the 17 entrepreneurs that pitched getting funding interests from more than one investor/financier, and others offering to work with them to offer skills training. 

A few highlights from pitchfest include Umoja Farm, a mechanized modern demo farm getting 4 funding interests from UIA, Mercicorps Ventures, Centenary Bank, and KRC Biorefinery Project. Honey Chocolate got sponsorship from Uganda Investment Authority to standardize his product for export and Solar Water Pump innovator from Devine Empowerment Development Skills got two banks offering to finance the project and UIA to train more youth under the Youth Entrepreneurship Program. 

The next pitchfest series is scheduled for 24th June 2021 in Eastern Uganda, to be hosted at Wash and Wills Hotel in Mbale City. Below are the details of the next pitchfest activities:

The Imuka Pitchfest Regional Calendar

How to Participate

1. To participate at the Imuka Pitchfest as an entrepreneur, you can apply online from Imuka access website, applications are free, but you will be required to contribute a small participation fee. 
2. To participate as an investor or a financier. You can confirm your participation as well on Imuka’s website
3. You can recommend potential participants, sponsors, or partners for sponsoring a series of Pitchfest 2021 activities. Imuka Access offices are found in Makerere University,  Food Technology Business Incubation Center Kampala, Uganda or reach them via phone at 0393 243 215 and 0788 320 403

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared with the Tech Point Magazine team.

Similar to last year, this year’s innovation challenge will require innovators to source the best ideas in the field of digital literacy, financial health, Citizen engagement and leveraging last-mile distribution networks. In an event set to be hosted at the Kampala design hub, winning innovators will be announced for a pilot stage by an anchor partner.

Partners include Fintech startup Ensibuuko, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSDU), Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and Innovation hubs from which winning innovators will refine their proposed solutions to best suit the needs of their target customers.

Upon shortlisting and announcement of winning ideas, all innovator teams will have 10 Mins of presentation to a team of judges, potential investors and panellists at the event which will be hosted at the Kampala Design hub and online via the Startup Uganda social media channels on Friday 21st May 2021.

OKO currently operates in Uganda and Mali, the startup uses satellite data and mobile payments to create automated insurance products for farmers whose fields are affected adversely by unpredicted weather patterns — primarily droughts and floods. But with the new funding round, OKO aims at strengthening its presence in Mali and Uganda to serve as a benchmark for expansion to more African countries.

“Agriculture is by far the largest source of occupation in Africa, with an estimated 33 million farms. And yet, farmers are deprived from basic financial services like insurance and loans.

We are using technology to solve this issue and secure the income of those farmers”.

Says Simon Schwall – the founder of OKO

At the moment, the company boasts with over 7,000 paying customers in Mali and compensated more than 1,000 farmers who were affected by floods in 2020. Its major customers are maize, cotton, sesame, millet and barley growers. Additionally, the company also works with agro-industries to help them achieve their goals and secure their relationships with suppliers.

For instance, OKO works with Nile Breweries out-growers in Uganda to best produce the best quality barley by giving them a crop insurance guarantee. This motivates the farmers to produce with less worry about risks involved in their relationship with the brewery. So far the company has sealed partnerships with ABInBev (Part of Nile Breweries) and Touton in Uganda to help them achieve their goals.

With this innovation, Augustic Sayer – a partner at New fund was convinced that OKO deserves funding to accomplish its set targets and goals which majorly boost farmers in Africa. And with expansion plans, New Fund found it safe to invest in OKO as a great insurtech startup that will bring positive change to many African farmers.

“We believe recent advancement in IoT and data availability will lead to the rise of parametric insurance in Africa for the benefit of the local populations. Simon and his team have built solid bases in Mali from which OKO can now expand in new countries and offer new insurance products.”

Said Augustic Sayer

In Uganda alone, OKO operates in a competitive environment where Agritech startups like EazyAgric, Jaguza Tech, and many others strive to help farmers earn more from their produce. But with its focus on ensuring crop insurance for farmers, it connects with them through a mobile phone app and shortcodes from where farmers can obtain more information and pay through mobile money services.

To achieve maximum accessibility for farmers, the company has bridged partnerships with mobile operators with its most recent partner being Orange Mali which has extended the Orange Money platform to make it easy for farmers to use OKO services. And with the new funding round, the OKO founder OKO Schawall noted that they need to find more partners in order to bring their product to more farmers across Africa as they aim to expand to more countries across the continent.