Female Owned Agritech Startup, Farmula, on a Mission to Stabilize Agricultural Market for Buyers and Sellers
“In the tech field, our skills have to evolve as fast as technology, if not faster” — Vivian Awino Opondoh, CEO of Farmula.
Written by Brandason, Strategic Communications Firm for the Tech By Her Accelerator, powered by MEST with support from the Tech Entrepreneurship Initiative, ‘Make-IT in Africa’, (implemented by Deutsche für Gesellschaft Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Annually, farmers produce enough food to feed everyone in the world, however, many people are still food insecure due to complications and inefficiencies in the food system. It is currently estimated that one-third of edible food produced annually, about 1.3 billion tons, is lost or wasted (FAO). In countries like Kenya, most people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, yet many farmers and their families are trapped in poverty. And the lack of contact between end-users and farmers constantly results in low sales, or farmers producing items that customers did not demand. With Africa’s growing population, it is critical that small-scale farmers have the means to make the transition to commercial production, both to improve their own livelihoods and also to help ensure a food supply that meets the needs of the consumers.
To address these challenges, Farmula has developed a solution that makes access to market seamless for farmers in rural Kenya, with a focus on price and quality transparency. The demand-driven Agritech startup is on a mission to stabilize commodity prices globally by using agricultural data.
‘The concept behind our product is to provide a solution that aligns with how fresh produce vendors in the informal sector interact with their buyers.’ explains Vivian Opondoh, the CEO and Co-Founder of Farmula. ‘By working with vendors in the informal sector, we realized that they preferred making in-person orders and having direct contact with farmers rather than going through third parties. Our initial product was USSD based, then a Mobile application. But once we realized that our customers preferred to place orders directly via phone calls, we settled on a solution that mimics how they currently trade. We now serve our customer base using WhatsApp bots. Voice I/O, our voice to text bot, allows vendors to send us voice notes on WhatsApp to place their orders’.
The strategy was a success and drastically improved the adoption rate of Farmula. But this was not the only hurdle Vivian and her team had to overcome in order to launch their business. As Vivian explains it, ‘the beginning was tough. The core team had to directly source the produce for their customers. This meant four days out of the week was spent at the farm.’ Initially, they were also only dealing with potatoes which caused a high churn rate, because it was easier for customers to buy potatoes at the market while shopping for other items, than to just order potatoes from Farmula.
As with all challenges, however, the ability to rise above them is accompanied by significant growth and improvement. For Farmula, their hard work dealing directly with their customers meant that word of mouth referrals became their biggest marketing tool, taking them from fulfilling orders of up to a tonne of potatoes a week to three tonnes every four days.
“In the agricultural sector, you cannot compete on only providing affordable produce because there is always someone who will outbid you. Instead, provide value that resonates with your customer. That is the key to success” Vivian Opondoh, CEO of Farmula.
Indeed, the demand-driven Agritech startup has developed two solutions that add value to their services and keeps their customers coming back. The first is their proprietary Price Prediction Model which provides farmers with key insights to maximize their profits, including when to plant and what plants are most requested by customers at any given point in time. They also have a Quality Assurance App that enables buyers to check the quality of produce remotely. Once buyers are satisfied with product quality, they are able to order via a WhatsApp bot which acts as a marketplace, connecting farmers and buyers.
Currently, Farmula’s business model leverages partnerships with already existing vendors in different locations. These partners act as Farmula’s storefront, enabling them to reach other vendors while cutting down on operation costs. As a software company, Farmula also does not need to take inventory, nor do they place markups on their produce. This makes it possible for them to offer vendors very competitive prices for their produce.
Being a female founder in the technology industry and leading the development of agri-tech solutions was not a random occurrence for Vivian who has a background in Aerospace Engineering, Software Development, and Data Science. Prior to launching Farmula in February 2019 alongside 3 other co-founders, Vivian founded a Tech consulting firm in 2013, a food business in 2015, and a farming business in 2016 and freelanced as a Software developer in 2017. She explained that these ventures helped her develop the skills and experience needed to create solutions that address the root cause of agricultural challenges in Kenya. It also influenced her leadership style which she says lies between Democratic, Strategic, and Transformational. ‘I believe there is power when people work together and learn from each. I encourage my team to track their learnings from whatever work they do because that is the only way to use these learnings to strategically plan for better execution’.
In the next five years, Vivian hopes that the value Farmula is adding to Africa’s agricultural industry will make it a household name across the continent. However, she believes this is only possible through collaboration. ‘I would like to see a future full of collaboration between startups in the tech ecosystem. I think we have enough solutions in Africa, what is needed is strategic collaborations that cause a massive change and evolution in the way we do things.’
To further achieve her vision, Vivian is constantly on the lookout for different programs that expand her network and improves upon her skills as an entrepreneur. It’s how she learned about the Tech By Her Accelerator program which she says has been very insightful. ‘I have met some inspiring individuals from the mentors to my fellow participants in the cohort. It’s also influenced how I work and run the business now and I’m grateful for the opportunity.’
When asked what advice she would give to others considering a career in the tech industry, Vivian said that the most important thing is to ‘Know your why and be ready’. Speaking from her personal experience she shared that many girls are nurtured in a household where they are told the tech sector is for boys, and this stems from their parents receiving the same misinformation. So most girls grow up with zero exposure to tech-related studies and do not know about technology or how to get into the tech industry. And even when they do, it is not uncommon to be underestimated because they’re female. But this, she adds excitedly, is also a fantastic opportunity. ‘I have seen colleagues praise and support ideas proposed by men yet I communicated the same exact idea first. This has taught me to work in silence and let my work speak for itself. Thus, being underestimated as a woman in tech is the best thing because they never see you coming.’
With 60% of the world’s unused arable land and 54% of Africa’s population working in the agricultural sector, Africa has enormous agricultural promise. Agritech startups are already showing impressive growth with over US$19 million invested in the Agritech sector in Africa in 2016 alone and the number of startups operating in the market increasing by 110% (Disrupt-Africa).
As more startups such as Farmula venture into the sector, and with organizations such as MEST Africa offering investment, training, and assistance, Africa could very well be on its way to becoming the Silicon Valley of Agricultural tech innovations.
About Tech By Her
Tech By Her Accelerator program is a three-month industry-agnostic program for ten (10) female founders of early-stage tech companies in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. The program fuels growth among female-led businesses by recognizing and maximizing the unique strengths of the female entrepreneur and equipping them with the needed knowledge, tools, and resources to scale and sustain their businesses in a competitive environment. The program recognizes that the diversified use of tech in the industry has gone a long way in creating a more gender-inclusive and balanced world and seeks to empower women who have ventured into the industry to aim higher and go global.
