Denis Opudo
Farmcrowdy is a Nigerian digital startup which connects investors to farmers via sponsorship deal to fund higher yields for a share of the returns. The app helps the sponsors to acquire screened agricultural opportunities by type of produce, amount of funding, duration contract, and returns expectations on investment. The common crops offered are soya beans, cassava, and rice. The startup can also be used by the sponsors to monitor their sponsorship performance.
According to the Farmcrowdy CEO Onyeka Akumah, the platform digitalize marketplace hence helping to solve a complex problem, this makes it stand out among others. The platform not only funds the farmers but it at the same time trains farmers and offers a market for their produce. Through the logistics, Farmcrowdy helps the farmers in getting good returns by reducing the expenses of moving the product from the farms to the market. The platform majors specifically on small-scale farming in Nigeria and collaborates with Africa’s International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Syngenta in providing farmers with expertise.
The main problem main farmers are suffering is lack of enough farm inputs to realize the full harvest potential of their farms. The startup’s revenue structure relies on the split system for sponsorship. Principal plus 20 percent for Farmcrowdy, 40 percent for sponsors and 40 percent for farmers this means that is if an investor sponsored a maize farm for 6 months at $1000 and harvested the products sold for $1500, the sponsor would regain their investment of $1000 plus 40 percent of profits $600, the farmer $600 40 percent, and Farmcrowdy $300 20 percent.
Farmcrowdy is planning to increase its operations to 20 states in Nigeria and serve more small-scale farmers by using its fresh funding in scaling the operations. The startup took part in the accelerator class Techstars, in 2017. According to TechStars mentor Cody Simms via an email, Techstars considered Farmcrowdy’s model during a trip to Nigeria at the beginning of 2017. The agricultural sector has seen some tech companies trying to bring in startup, solutions, and apps. The firm got an investment funding of $1million from investors like Social Capital, TechStars, and Cox Ventures.
In Kenya Tanzania and Uganda, Mastercard launched its 2KUZE agtech platform for small-scale farmers in January. Small-scale farmers in Ghana also benefits from logistic solutions offered by AgroCenta.
