This archive report was first published on 12 September 2019.
On September 12, 2019, Village Capital announced the startups participating in its Agriculture Africa 2019 program, which aimed to improve outcomes for small farmers and address food security issues.
The program was held in partnership with Small Foundation and Ceniarth, with Ceniarth committing $100,000 to the top two peer-selected ventures.
According to Village Capital, 'at Village Capital, we believe agriculture entrepreneurs can address these gaps. Entrepreneurs have the potential to raise productivity for small farmers, increase food security, improve and secure the value chain, and strengthen links to markets, all while generating job growth and local economic development.'
The participating startups include:
- Uganda's Akellobanker, which enables farmers to access, order for, and share farm extension workers, inputs, tools, and equipment on credit from verified service providers.
- Agro Supply, a Ugandan platform offering a mobile layaway product allowing farmers to leverage savings rather than credit for investing in their farm productivity.
- AYWAJIE, an online platform for fish products that allows fishermen to sell their products easily to consumers, restaurants, and hotels.
- UNE, an online platform for fish products that allows fishermen to sell their products easily to consumers, restaurants, and hotels.
- CAPTURE Solutions, which provides unique B2B ICT applications to companies and organizations that need to reorganize and streamline their working processes.
- Complete Farmer, a Ghanaian digital agriculture platform that makes it easy for industries to source quality food raw materials and convenient for anyone anywhere to own a farm.
- eeMsika, which helps farmers find, buy, and receive farm inputs and advisory services from the comfort of their farms.
- Raino Tech4Impact, a Kenyan platform promoting sustainable agriculture by leveraging technology, data, and innovative business models.
- ReelFruit, a Nigerian dried fruit processing firm retailing a range of six unique dried fruit and nut snacks to a wide variety of customers.
- Volta Irrigation, an environmentally restorative social enterprise that aims to unlock the productivity potential for smallholder farmers through the provision of affordable and accessible irrigation services.
