WeFarm Secures $5 million seed funding
Here at Nairobi Garage, we get super excited when great things happen for our members, and this month we got some of the best news. WeFarm, the winners of the world’s largest start-up competition last year, have secured a $5 million additional seed funding to help them carry on the amazing work that they do.
Wefarm is a free peer-to-peer service that enables farmers to share information via SMS, without the internet and without having to leave their farm. Farmers can ask questions on farming and receive crowd-sourced answers from other farmers around the world in minutes. The data models can track and predict key issues which affect farmers, such as shortages, drought, soil conditions, diseases and other vital supply chain issues, helping farmers improve supply chain management and security, stay on top of key trends and challenges, and increase sustainability overall.
The additional seed funding is being led by some of the biggest names;
- Silicon-Valley based True Ventures,
- Skype and Atomico Founder Niklas Zennström, angel investing in a personal capacity,
- WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg,
- Blue Bottle Coffee CEO Bryan Meehan,
- Norrsken Foundation,
- LocalGlobe and Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV).
“We’re proud to have created a network that empowers the close to one million farmers who use our service, and we’re excited to expand our reach and product capabilities this year.” said Kenny Ewan, Founder and CEO of Wefarm.
What is next on the cards for Wefarm?
They will be using this funding to help develop commercial product offerings and build a new set of features. One of the main features, which is aligned with WeFarm’s belief of putting the farmer first, is the interactive “smart farming assistant” which will support farmers both throughout the growing season and with their livestock.
Anna Tyott, Deputy CEO of the Norrsken Foundation says; “We invested in Wefarm because their innovative solution helps to achieve the United Nation’s sustainable development goals, it enables small farmers to become more efficient, thereby directly contributing to the eradication of hunger and poverty.”
Wefarm is currently operating in Kenya and Uganda with plans to expand into other areas of Eastern and Sub-Saharan Africa imminently. It has a user retention rate of 90 percent and more than 30 percent of farmers actively contribute their knowledge every month.
Big hearty congratulations from Nairobi Garage to WeFarm for this amazing achievement, we are excited to see the amazing things you are going to do with this funding!
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