Startup: MFarm

Kenya is an agricultural economy. Despite this, Kenyan farmers have little or no access to agricultural information in relation to their produce.

Key to being profitable as a farmer is identifying the much needed market and ensuring you tap into it fully. However, most Kenyan markets are run by cartels and farmers barely make enough to sustain the business. Some of them have even abandoned farming all together.

Kenya however, being led by Nairobi Garage, is home to great innovators and techpreneurs who seek to solve some of these challenges.

This week on our startup segment, we feature MFarm, a software solution and agri-business company.

MFarm was founded by three ladies, Jamila Abbas, Susan Eve and Linda who overcame many obstacles to win the IPO48 Bootcamp in 2010. This saw them bag a cool Ksh 1 million which was used as seed capital for the company.

The idea for the MFarm app was born on realization that farmers get a raw deal from middle-men in sale of their produce. To solve this, MFarm offers daily prices of commodities on their platform; it also links farmers to the market as well as advices on the latest agri-business trends.

MFarm uses a text-based application as well which farmers can access via mobile.

The company has recorded great strides since its inception in 2010 and boasts of a network of over 7000 farmers who earn double profits with the use of MFarm app.

Kenya is increasingly becoming modernized; however, there are many farmers who still don’t have access to these gadgets leaving them at the mercy of the middle-men.

This poses a great challenge for MFarm but despite this, it’s a great startup with huge potential for transforming not only Kenya but Africa.

Remember to check in with Nairobi Garage for more amazing startups.