Digitizing farming supply chains

Farmers Pride is an Agritech company founded in Kenya in 2016. This week we caught up with their founder, Samuel Munguti to learn more.

What challenge does Farmers Pride solve?

Traditional agriculture inputs, extension and service delivery to smallholder farmers are poor and inefficient.

The majority of rural farmers depend on agro-dealer stores and cooperatives to access inputs and key services which are dominated by poor management and customer experience.

Farmers are not empowered on good agriculture practices and right inputs access, affecting farm productivity and family income.

We solve this problem by leveraging technology to offer a more efficient last mile marketplace platform to smallholder farmers.

What were you doing before founding the company?

I was CMO at Farm Shop. I began my career in the FMCG industry, where I managed R&D, distribution, sales and marketing for several multinationals across East Africa including Coca-Cola and Colgate Palmolive.

How did you get Farmers Pride off the ground?

Winning D-Prize Global Challenge gave us the much needed boost to pilot test and validate Farmers Pride model.

How much money have you raised so far?

A $220k pre-seed round.

Where do you currently operate?

Currently in Kenya and targeting pan African expansion next 2 years.

What’s your business model and how have you grown your user base?

Farmers Pride targets informal agro-dealer stores and farmer cooperatives and transforms them into Digishops that offer improved inputs, services and information to their local farmers.

Through our platform, last mile Agro-dealers and cooperative entrepreneurs are able to digitize their operations and offer local farmers the right products and services, thereby expanding their access and service to rural farming.

Our business model is unique in that we adopt a micro-franchising concept. We enable women-owned rural Agro-dealer shops and farmers to increase their income via technology platform economics.

What metric do you use to measure success?

Impact on income and revenue to farmers and Agro-dealer entrepreneurs serviced by farmers pride.

What’s the most useful tool you use in your business?

Our proprietary Digishop recruitment tool we use to screen and select merchants.

What do you love most and least about running the company?

I love hearing everyday about the great success stories from farmers and Agri-vendor entrepreneurs who are beneficiaries of Farmers Pride.

What I like least is having to fundraise. This can be a long and arduous process.

What company do you look to for inspiration and why?

Twiga and their fundraising greatness.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt so far?

Building a startup in Africa needs patience and focus. It’s analogous to running a marathon.

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