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mehdibella

Kenyan agri-tech startup FarmDrive secures latest funding round - 0 views

  • Kenyan agri-tech startup FarmDrive has accessed further financing as it expands operations to provide access to credit for three million smallholder farmers.
    • tahaemsd
       
      the investment from strategic investors enabled farmdrive to build financial identities for more smallholder businesses
  • Founded by Peris Bosire and Rita Kimani, FarmDrive delivers productive digital loans and lay away savings products to smallholder farmers in Kenya, helping them grow their incomes and resilience.
  • Having previously raised funding from the likes of Safaricom and EWB Canada, FarmDrive has now secured further investment. EWB Canada is again involved in the round, which also includes AK Impact Investors, 1 to 4 Foundation, ADAP Seed Fund 2, The Lakes Charitable Foundation and Sunu Capital.
    • mehdibella
       
      The follow-on investment will allow FarmDrive to scale to US$13 million of loan, with minimal losses and exceptional returns
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  • Using a combination of agriculturally relevant data, Know Your Customer (KYC) data, and advanced behavioral analytics, the startup has developed a proprietary lending engine to extend loans to these farmers.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      The relevant financial technologies behind FarmDrive.
  • The follow-on investment will allow FarmDrive to scale to US$13 million of loan originations in 2019 with minimal losses and exceptional returns using RiPe, a customisable lending engine that will allow lenders to plug in and access low-cost loan origination channels such as USSD, credit scoring, identity verification, and a portfolio management suite that includes recovery and collections, payments, customer support and advanced real time data analytics.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      FarmDrive is providing a range of services while focusing on its low-cost approach and maximizing its profit.
  • “We are delighted for this investment from strategic investors to enable us to build financial identities for more smallholder businesses and scale our low cost distribution model. We are going where banks haven’t reached and are creating a trust ecosystem in the most unstructured sector in sub Saharan Africa – Agriculture,” said Bosire.
    • hibaerrai
       
      FarmDrive agritech has the potential to take over the banking system in sub saharan Africa as it provides more structured services.
  • Kenyan agri-tech startup FarmDrive has accessed further financing as it expands operations to provide access to credit for three million smallholder farmers.
    • ayachehbouni
       
      As I see it, Farmdrive needs and deserves all the financing it can get as it is creating a trust ecosystem in the most unstructured sector in sub Saharan Africa, which makes its operations extremely important.
mehdibella

FarmDrive Helps Unbanked Farmers in Kenya | The Borgen Project - 0 views

  • FarmDrive combats this lack of financial visibility by calculating alternative credit scores for Kenyan smallholder farmers. The startup requires users to input their expenses, revenue and yield via SMS and creates a platform for farmers to record business activity. FarmDrive then uses a complex algorithm to combine individual financial information with additional factors like the climate in the farmer’s region.
    • tahaemsd
       
      farmdrive eliminates some of the risk for banks by considering both the self reported financial history of farmers as well as exogenous variables that will affect their crop yields
  • By accruing farmer data, FarmDrive eliminates some of the risk for banks. FarmDrive has partnered with African financial firms who accept their alternative credit scores and determine appropriate loans for smallholder farmers. Lending institutions thus consider both the self-reported financial history of farmers as well as exogenous variables that will affect their crop yields.
    • mehdibella
       
      FarmDrive collects data from farmers via and combines it with satellite imaging, alternative data points to create detailed yield estimates and assess credit risk.
  • FarmDrive depends on aid organizations, like USAID, and private firms that operate in the agricultural industry. FarmDrive is expanding its data collection through new partnerships with Planet, a satellite company, and The Impact Lab, a data analytics group, to potentially incorporate climate information gathered via satellite imagery into its algorithm.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      In addition to financial firms, FramDrive partners up with aid organizations, private firms operating in the agricultural industry, satellite company, and a data analytics group.
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  • There are 50 million smallholder farmers in Kenya, but less than 10 percent of this population has their economic needs fulfilled by traditional lenders. The agricultural sector makes up 32 percent of Africa’s GDP and employs 65 percent of its population, but less than 1 percent of bank lending goes to agriculture. Worldwide, there is an estimated $450 billion agricultural lending gap. African smallholder farmers face barriers to traditional lending because they are labeled high-risk borrowers by financial institutions. Traditional banks use credit scores and bank statements to determine a loan applicant’s riskiness. However, the average farmer in Africa cultivates fewer than five acres of land and owns no collateral or financial records.
    • aminej
       
      Unfortunaely for most farmers, they can't access credit from traditional banks because they are considered as high risk borrowers since they face many risks such as climate change, theft, lack of fertilizers. Now, through farmdrive everything changed with these new Fintechs who started giving more importance to farmers
kenzabenessalah

FarmDrive: Connecting farmers to financing | Mercy Corps - 0 views

  • While financial inclusion in the country has increased, many farmers remain excluded. Limited financing for farmers is due, in part, to a lack of available credible risk-assessment information for financial institutions. Many small farmers are unbanked and off the financial grid, without credit profiles to verify or back up details on their annual income, business expenses or yields.
    • tahaemsd
       
      Without thiis information, farmers are left with little to no access to financial services, while lenders miss out on the opportunity to build their client base and agricultural loan portfolios.
  • FarmDrive generates real-time credit reports for small farmers, allowing them to access loans from financial institutions and agricultural input providers via mobile phone. 
  • FarmDrive collects expense and revenue data from farmers via SMS and combines it with satellite imaging, remote sensing technology and alternative data points (e.g., soil analysis, weather forecasts) to create detailed yield estimates and assess credit risk.
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  • FarmDrive overlaps our focus areas of agriculture and financial inclusion, empowering the world’s most vulnerable farmers with the digital financial services they need to strengthen and improve their livelihoods. 
    • mehdibella
       
      FarmDrive collects expense and revenue data from farmers and combines it with satellite imaging, remote sensing technology and alternative data points to create detailed yield estimates and assess credit risk.
  • We’ve connected FarmDrive to various partners and expertise to help them scale, as its usage increases in other developing markets in sub-Saharan Africa. 
  • Reports allow credit providers to make informed lending decisions and easily reach rural clients, expanding access to financing for small farmers. As a result, farmers have greater control over their livelihoods – equipped with what they need to increase their crop yields, improve their incomes and invest their additional revenue back into their families and communities.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      FarmDrive collects data from farmers using different technologies which allows the company to generate farmers' credit reports which allow loan providers to make informed decisions and therefore give more access to financing to small farmers.
  • Since, FarmDrive has reached hundreds of farmers with its suite of financial services, credit reports and financing options, with a particular focus on serving women and youth farmers typically neglected by the formal financial system.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      The focus that FarmDrive has on serving women is essential to keep in mind. We must dig deep as to why they are being neglected by the financial system and make sure that they never get fooled by them in the future.
  • In Kenya, most small farmers — around 7.5 million — lack access to small loans to help them buy what they need to improve their production and make the most of their land – things like quality fertilizers, better seeds, livestock and micro-irrigation.  
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      Knowing the percentage of the population who do not own bank accounts as well as the percentages of loans that others have access to is a must to help improve the economic situation in Kenya. Such details, like interest rate, etc. are essential in helping people construct a well structured economic strategy so that all Kenyans benefit from these financial services and never fall back again.
ayachehbouni

Kenyan Startup FarmDrive Uses Data Analytics to Connect Unbanked Farmers to Financial S... - 0 views

  • In its next phase of algorithm development, FarmDrive seeks to expand the environmental arm of the algorithm by incorporating more alternative data-sets, including satellite imagery and remote sensing data. They are currently engaging with Planet, a satellite company from Silicone Valley, and The Impact Lab, a Chicago-based data analytics firm to analyze the possibilities of using satellite images in predicting a farmer’s creditworthiness.In addition, FarmDrive also plans to use these environmental data-sets, in combination with crop cycle data to predict seasonal yield and influence agricultural insurance products.The startup also uses machine learning in generating the farmer’s profile by learning from the farmer’s input. Data points about the farmer’s behaviour, education level, and their interaction with the app are all analyzed to contribute to the farmers profile score.
    • hibaerrai
       
      FarmDrive employs different advanced methods to predict a client's creditworthiness. They also conduct psychometric tests to figure out their clients' characters. This makes the process professional and the customer base monitored.
  • Smallholder farmers, especially in Kenya face difficulties when it comes to accessing loans and financing from banks and other financial institutions. The agricultural sector is the backbone to Kenya’s economy, yet banks have very little incentive to work with farmers.
    • aminej
       
      FarmDrive use very advanced data analytics to evaluate the credit risk of farmers across Africa in order to help them access investments and funds. They use algorithms developed by their own team which is really good
  • FarmDrive founded in 2014 has built an innovative solution that provides “detailed risk profiles of smallholder farmers to financial institutions”. FarmDrive does this through a credit score, generated by an algorithm developed by the team, in-house. The algorithm relies on data-sets collected from the farmers through their mobile phones, alternative data and machine learning.
    • ayachehbouni
       
      The agricultural sector is crucial to Kenya. Yet, farmers have a very hard time getting loans from banks. Hence, as it helps in this aspect, Farmdrive might as well be saving the backbone of the country.
mehdibella

FarmDrive LTD | F6S - 0 views

  • FarmDrive is a tech-driven social enterprise working at the intersection of technology, agriculture and finance. FarmDrive is improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Africa by using new technology and alternative data to increase availability of capital; mitigating both financial and operational risks while creating shared value for other players in the value chain.
    • hibaerrai
       
      FarmDrive gives the opportunity to smallholder farmers to extract loans and have access to different financial services to manage their small businesses.
  • FarmDrive understands smallholder farmers uniquely through dynamic datasets and translates this to financial institutions. More than 50 million smallholder farmers in Africa are struggling to make a living due to lack of capital to improve their farming activities.
  • FarmDrive has developed a platform that gathers data on smallholder farmers both from the ‘ground’ and ‘data from the sky’. FarmDrive uses sophisticated algorithms to turn that data into comprehensive credit profiles of “unbanked and underbanked” smallholders who have little access to credit.
    • mehdibella
       
      this solution is a catalyst to reduce the operational costs while increasing operational efficiencies. The platform allows them to do so by using modern technology, and an immense amount of data captured by the solution interfaces.
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  • The solution is a catalyst to reduce the operational costs while increasing operational efficiencies. Whether credit providers are seeking to better minimize their credit risk exposure, digitize their loan application processes, or streamline their new client outreach, the FarmDrive platform allows them to do so by using world-class algorithms, modern technology, and an immense amount of data captured by the solution interfaces.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      FarmDrive solution presents a win-win situation for both financial and credit institutions and farmers; from mitigating risk to having access to financing and increasing performance and operational efficiency.
  •  
    "The solution is a catalyst to reduce the operational costs while increasing operational efficiencies. Whether credit providers are seeking to better minimize their credit risk exposure, digitize their loan application processes, or streamline their new client outreach, the FarmDrive platform allows them to do so by using world-class algorithms, modern technology, and an immense amount of data captured by the solution interfaces."
kenza_abdelhaq

How Africa's Tech Generation Is Changing the Continent - 0 views

  • Bosire and Kimani launched FarmDrive in May 2015. The digital recordkeeping platform serves as a basis for bankers to establish credit ratings and determine which farmers are best suited for small loans. FarmDrive’s pilot program consisted of 50 farmers. Today hundreds of thousands are in FarmDrive’s database; about 830 have received financing. In turn the banks pay FarmDrive for essentially functioning as their credit bureau for Kenya’s vast farming community. The two entrepreneurs have no intention of stopping there. “There are more than five million small farmers in Kenya,” Bosire says. “Throughout Africa it’s about 50 million. But when we started FarmDrive, we always had global ambitions. We’re building solutions for farmers in Asia too.”
    • hibaerrai
       
      FarmDrive is now among popular agritech in Kenya, and Africa. The two creators are not stopping here, and are planning to expand their business to Asia and the world. I believe that the fact that customers who have issues with IT can easily use the platform, shows how big the fintech will be. It is a huge selling point.
  • But if it’s true that Kenya’s relative stability has contributed to Bosire and Kimani’s success, it’s also true—and typical of the Kenyan entrepreneurial experience—that FarmDrive has succeeded with little encouragement from the national government. In sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya and Nigeria have achieved tech preeminence more from venture capital flowing into those large countries than from government action.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      The main source of FarmDrive financing is venture capital investments. The company received very little help from the government.
  •  
    "But if it's true that Kenya's relative stability has contributed to Bosire and Kimani's success, it's also true-and typical of the Kenyan entrepreneurial experience-that FarmDrive has succeeded with little encouragement from the national government. In sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya and Nigeria have achieved tech preeminence more from venture capital flowing into those large countries than from government action."
aminej

FarmDrive Raises Funding to Help Africa's Smallholder Farmers Get Finance with Credit S... - 0 views

  • So far, 3,000 farmers have registered with FarmDrive, borrowing over $130k in loans. That’s a tiny portion of what’s needed across Africa where 65% of the workforce is involved in agriculture, but less than 1% of bank loans go to the industry. And globally there’s a $450 billion funding gap in agriculture, according to FarmDrive.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      FarmDrive is fulfilling a market gap by providing loans and access to financing to farmers who represent 65% of the workforce in Africa.
  • FarmDrive, a Kenyan data analytics startup helping smallholder farmers in Africa access credit from local banks, has raised funding from the venture arm of Safaricom, the biggest communication company in East and Central Africa, Safaricom Spark Venture Fund.
    • aminej
       
      More and more companies are raising funds for agricultural fintechs since they are realizing that agriculture is very important mostly during crisis period. Also, small holder farmers need protection and investments in order to maximize their profit
  •  
    "So far, 3,000 farmers have registered with FarmDrive, borrowing over $130k in loans. That's a tiny portion of what's needed across Africa where 65% of the workforce is involved in agriculture, but less than 1% of bank loans go to the industry. And globally there's a $450 billion funding gap in agriculture, according to FarmDrive."
hibaerrai

FarmDrive | WSA - 1 views

  • FarmDrive is a Kenyan ¬based social enterprise that is unlocking access to financial services for over 50 million smallholder farmers in Africa. Using simple mobile phone technology, alternative data sets, and sophisticated data analytics, FarmDrive is closing the critical information gap that keeps smallholder farmers from getting loans that would allow them to grow and diversify their businesses. Potentially creditworthy smallholder farmers are often denied loans because they lack the traditional credit profiles that lenders rely on to evaluate borrowers.FarmDrive bridges the funding gap between smallholder farmers and financial institutions in two ways. The first step is to bring together multiple streams of data to create yield-predictive agronomic algorithms specific to each farming vertical and geographical region. T hese streams of data can be classified into three categories: 1. Agronomic Data: crop portfolio, soil health, drainage, weeds, pests, etc. 2. Remote Sensing Data: vegetation, weather conditions, climate trends, etc. 3. Market Data: offtake security, price trends, etc. FarmDrive then creates credit profiles for farmers by combining the agronomic algorithm with behavioral data. The behavioral data is obtained from farmers through a simple SMS/Android mobile phone application. With this application, Farmers can track their revenues and expenses, and also send demographic information to FarmDrive.
    • hibaerrai
       
      FarmDrive specializes in smallholder farmers businesses; it is not common in Africa. This Fintech helps farmers extract needed loans that will help them grow and expand. This initiative closes thus the gap between agricultors and financial services, and increases financial inclusion.
mehdibella

FarmDrive - EWB Canada - 0 views

  • FarmDrive - EWB Canada
  • FarmDrive uses data analytics to connect smallholder farmers with financial institutions and credit, enabling crops and farmers to flourish. And all through a mobile phone.
  • FarmDrive uses data analytics and mobile technology to create financial profiles for farmers through a credit scoring model. When the financial institutions can view comprehensive profiles of a farmer’s economic performance, they are more likely to approve loans.By unlocking access to credit, FarmDrive enables smallholder farmers to access: Loans to purchase vital tools and assets. Insurance to bolster to protect against the natural seasonal vulnerabilities of farm work. Comprehensive financial profiles of their farming operations: a useful resource in scaling to service multiple partners or larger supply chains.
    • mehdibella
       
      As a result, farmers can: Grow their businesses. Provide additional business opportunities for local communities. Promote local employment. Create more food, health and education.
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  • FarmDrive uses data analytics and mobile technology to create financial profiles for farmers through a credit scoring model. When the financial institutions can view comprehensive profiles of a farmer’s economic performance, they are more likely to approve loans.By unlocking access to credit, FarmDrive enables smallholder farmers to access: Loans to purchase vital tools and assets. Insurance to bolster to protect against the natural seasonal vulnerabilities of farm work. Comprehensive financial profiles of their farming operations: a useful resource in scaling to service multiple partners or larger supply chains.
    • samiatazi
       
      As a result, farmers can: Grow their businesses. Provide additional business opportunities for local communities. Promote local employment. Create more food, health and education.
mehdibella

CGAP and FarmDrive Announce Partnership | CGAP - 0 views

  • CGAP and FarmDrive Announce Partnership for Satellite-Based Credit Assessments for Smallholder Farmers
  • Through CGAP’s financial contribution, FarmDrive will collaborate with The Impact Lab and Planet to use satellite images to better understand planting cycles, crop yields, and trends in production to help forecast future revenues, timing of income and potential gaps in payments.
    • mehdibella
       
      CGAP and FarmDrive Announce Partnership for Satellite-Based Credit Assessments for Smallholder Farmers
  • FarmDrive Co-founder commented, “We are delighted by CGAP’s support. We created FarmDrive to revitalize agricultural production and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. The opportunity to incorporate world-class satellite technology and data analytics is a monumental step towards achieving these goals.”
mehdibella

FarmDrive - 0 views

  • FarmDrive’s alternative credit risk assessment model is providing financial institutions with an agriculturally relevant and data-driven model to assess risk and develop loans that fit the needs of smallholder farmers. Not only will this solution unlock millions of dollars of previously risk-averse capital for smallholder farmers, it will improve the livelihoods of entire communities, thereby alleviating poverty, hunger, and inequalities.
    • sawsanenn
       
      FarmDrive overlaps our focus areas of agriculture and financial inclusion, empowering the world's most vulnerable farmers with the digital financial services they need to strengthen and improve their livelihoods. FarmDrive connected to various partners and expertise to help them scale, as its usage increases in other developing markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Nearly 50 million smallholder farmers in Africa are struggling to support their families and communities through agri-business because less than 10% have their economic needs met by the financial sector. Without access to credit, they remain unable to purchase quality inputs, make productive investments, and improve their production and harvests.
    • sawsanenn
       
      While financial inclusion in the country has increased, many farmers remain excluded. Limited financing for farmers is due, in part, to a lack of available credible risk-assessment information for financial institutions.
  • FarmDrive’s alternative credit risk assessment model is providing financial institutions with an agriculturally relevant and data-driven model to assess risk and develop loans that fit the needs of smallholder farmers. Not only will this solution unlock millions of dollars of previously risk-averse capital for smallholder farmers, it will improve the livelihoods of entire communities, thereby alleviating poverty, hunger, and inequalities.
    • aminej
       
      FarmDrive helps small holder farmers get access to credit and funding in order to develop more and improve their capabilities and ressources. They also offer another service that consist of giving a score to each farmer according to his credits which is a good way to evaluate each one and to include more people that are unbanked.
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  • FarmDrive uses mobile phones, alternative data, and machine learning to close the critical data gap that prevents financial institutions from lending to creditworthy smallholder farmers.
  • $450 Billion Financing Gap Agriculture employs 65% of Africa’s population and makes up 32% of its GDP. However, less than 1% of bank lending in Africa goes to agriculture. In absence of accurate and cost-effective methods for assessing small-scale agricultural lending risk, financial institutions choose not to lend to smallholder farmers, thereby contributing to the $450 billion global agriculture financing gap.
    • mehdibella
       
      Not only will this solution unlock millions of dollars of previously risk-averse capital for smallholder farmers, it will improve the livelihoods of entire communities as the GDPR is maiinly based on agriculture these similar technologies help push it over the limit.
  •  
    This excerpt is important because FarmDrive tries to gather all data needed to create loans that suit farmers situations.
aminej

FarmDrive, a win-win system - 1 views

  • Most smallholder Kenyan farmers are excluded from the financial system because they do not have a satisfactory credit profile. Without access to formal credit systems, they use alternative systems providing credit at high-interest rates, which, in addition, are not well suited to support their farm and off-farm activities.Having done this, the FarmDrive team met banks and organisations financing smallholder farmers to better understand the reasons for exclusion. They discovered that it is often the lack of information that locks farmers out of the financial system. They decided to try to fill this gap by collecting information from farmers, and analysing the data obtained, establishing their credit profile. Once this is done, farmers can apply for a loan via the platform FarmDrive.
    • hibaerrai
       
      Most banks state that the reason why farmers are excluded from financial services is that they don't have an appropriate profile. Farmdrive took the initiative and collected the necessary information (farm size, income, monthly expenses) to build suitable users' profiles so they can thus ask for loans through the platform. It made their lives easier.
  • African smallholder farmers face a recurring problem of access to finance and credit. Financial institutions, for their part, do not have access to many potential customers, considered as too risky. Young Kenyan computer scientists have developed FarmDrive, an application that aims to promote access to credit and financial services for smallholder farmers. banks remain to be won over, but the project is on track.
    • aminej
       
      FarmDrive use a very nice strategy that consist of teaching farmers about financial services that can help them make more profit. They also aims to facilitate accessing funds for farmers and get insured on their products
mehdibella

EWB Canada announces new investment in Kenyan fintech startup FarmDrive - Ventureburn - 0 views

  • The startup aim to deliver productive digital loans and lay away savings products to smallholder farmers and EWB Canada said the investment will allow the startup to scale to $13 million of loan
  • EWB Canada’s acting director of investments Elena Haba said the startup has the potential to fill the credit gap between creditors and underserved small business owners like smallholder farmers.
  • FarmDrive’s Bosire said the startup intends to create shared value by increasing agriculture portfolios in Africa from its current four percent of total lending to 25% and onwards.Said Bosire: “We are going where banks haven’t reached and are creating a trust ecosystem in the most unstructured sector in sub Saharan Africa – Agriculture”.
    • mehdibella
       
      The startup aim to deliver productive digital loans and lay away savings products to smallholder farmers and EWB Canada said the investment will allow the startup to scale to $13 million of loan
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  • Kenyan fintech FarmDrive has received a new investment from Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB Canada). It follows a $50 000 investment the startup received from EWB Canada and others in 2016 and an undisclosed investment by Safaricom’s Spark Venture Fund in 2017.
    • hibaerrai
       
      I believe that it is amazing having investors from around the world supporting FarmDrive. Promoting these kinds of fintechs will help in creating more specialized ones, and I believe that it is necessary.
kenza_abdelhaq

10 AgTech Startups for Agriculture in Africa - Nanalyze - 0 views

  • Building a credit score with FarmDrive. Credit: FarmDrive
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      Credit score is based on individual, social, agronomic, environmental, economic, and satellite data.
  •  
    "Building a credit score with FarmDrive. Credit: FarmDrive"
ayachehbouni

FarmDrive in Kenya | Future Young Leaders - 0 views

  • In addition to the validated farm-level data collected through the app, FarmDrive also collects big data from satellite companies, weather stations, government agencies, and more. Using these aggregated data, the model generates credit scores and provides automated decisioning tools that enable financial institutions to develop loan products that fit the economic and agronomic needs of smallholder farmers.
    • hibaerrai
       
      FarmDrive makes sure to gather all possible data from different agencies and using different models to provide their clients with suitable loan deals. This supports automated financial services and better risk assessment.
  • In 2016 FarmDrive completed the initial phase of product-market fit in partnership with a Kenyan MFI. Through this pilot over KES 15 mil (USD 150,000) in loans were disbursed throughout 16 counties in Kenya. The pilot served as a proof point that better risk assessment can unlock capital for smallholder farmers, and informs the product development we’re doing today to drive more capital to farmers
    • ayachehbouni
       
      The achievements of FarmDrive exceed what was expected. That is thanks to, along with other things, the partnerships it had that allowed to provide more and extend its reach.
ayachehbouni

FarmDrive Receives Additional Investment - EWB Canada - 0 views

  • FarmDrive (FD), a Kenyan startup set to unlock millions of dollars in loans for smallholder farmers in Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa, received a follow-on investment from EWB Canada last month, with participation from AK IMPACT INVESTORS, 1 to 4 Foundation, ADAP SEED FUND 2 and The Lakes Charitable Foundation.
    • ayachehbouni
       
      Through their own personal experiences, the founders of FarmDrive know closely and all too well the value of giving loans to smallholder businesses. Because of their personal involvement and dedication, I believe FarmDrive is set to thrive and reach more and more smallholder farmers.
mehdibella

index.pdf - 0 views

shared by mehdibella on 12 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • FarmDrive has also partnered with the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) to build the capacity of Kenyan young farmers and stakeholders and help them access finance.
  • Farm Drive has a wide variety of partners including: investors (Engineers without Borders and Mercy Corps); capacity building (Open Capital advisors, ACRE Africa -to create insurance products); and financial institutions (Musoni Kenya).
  • FarmDrive catalyzes financial institutions to lend more to smallholder farmers by de-risking the process through clear and transparent records. Farmer clients of FarmDrive are benefiting from financial awareness, financial management tools, farming-related recommendations, access to finance and links to profitable markets.
    • mehdibella
       
      FarmDrive earns revenues from finance providers for their use of the credit profiles (fixed fee) and from farmers (percentage of loan amount as transaction fee).
mehdibella

Kenya's FarmDrive Receives Additional Investment Led By Existing Backer - 0 views

  • This FinTech startup founded by two Kenyan women is positioned to reach 3 million smallholder farmers in Kenya in the next 5 years.
  • FD uses mobile technology, predictive modelling, AI and a customer first approach to democratize access to loans to all farmers; ensuring farmers can apply for a loan from any type of phone and receive a decision on their loan application in seconds. FD has achieved this by building multiple channels of access and a fully automated lending process.
  • Previously, FD received $50,000 USD of early-stage seed funding from EWB Canada to develop their platform and prove to financial service providers that smallholder farmers are profitable clients.
    • mehdibella
       
      In the last 4 years, FD has seen that their loans increase the productivity and incomes of farmers and has led to reduced costs, increased scale, and improved quality of agricultural portfolios for lenders.
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  • In the last 4 years, FD has seen that their loans increase the productivity and incomes of farmers and has led to reduced costs, increased scale, and improved quality of agricultural portfolios for lenders.
  • FarmDrive (FD), a Kenyan startup set to unlock millions of dollars in loans for smallholder farmers in Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa, received a follow-on investment from EWB Canada last month, with participation from AK IMPACT INVESTORS, 1 to 4 Foundation, ADAP SEED FUND 2 and The Lakes Charitable Foundation.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      FarmDrive received financing from different global parties.
kenza_abdelhaq

FarmDrive - 0 views

  • They did not have the capital to purchase the critical farming inputs that could increase their yields and revenues.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      FarmDrive fulfills the farmers' need to access funding in order to have a sustainable and growing agricultural activity.
  •  
    "They did not have the capital to purchase the critical farming inputs that could increase their yields and revenues."
hibaerrai

Farmers,techies,entrepreneurs- the story of the FarmDrive girls - 0 views

  • “The digital nature of the product can be seen as exacerbating the usual challenges of ICT illiteracy. However, FarmDrive presents the record-keeping platform in different languages  – it’s now available in English and Kiswahili – via a simple SMS to increase the uptake of record-keeping among rural farmers. So farmers don’t have to have a smartphone,” Bosire says.“It also emerged during our pilot that farmers feel more empowered if they can their mobile phones for other activities apart from for calling, texting and mobile money. Their openness to  embracing new ways of using their simple mobile phones to solve challenges is what drives the culture shift from keeping non-organized farm records on paper or none at all  to digital record keeping,” she says.
    • hibaerrai
       
      One of the most added values of this agritech is the fact that farmers can access and apply for loans just by sending messages, and it doesn't need to be a smartphone. This shows that both creators of this app really taught about all potential customers.
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