Posted on April, 12, 2024 at 08:31 am
When VunaPay, an agritech startup that provides produce management solutions, was founded last year, its co-founder and CEO – Judy Njogu Mokaya – did not anticipate that the platform would gather momentum as fast as it did. Months later, the startup has brought on board three cooperatives, actively serving more than 9,000 farmers with tens of thousands more on a wait list.
“Small-holder farming accounts for 30% of the nation’s GDP. But there is little value generated from this enterprise. A sign that something is broken in the sector. We cannot see the benefit of the earnings derived from small-holder farming,” Njogu said in an interview with The Valentine Njoroge Show.
Njogu, who has a range of experience with stints at Safaricom and Oracle, partnered with Koya Matsuno, a seasoned Japanese entrepreneur, and Ian Wambai – a tech guru – to create VunaPay to enable farmers earn instant payment from their produce. The three co-founders collaborated on a sprint project in the startup accelerator program Antler, where they were challenged to come up with disruptive innovations that would spur social change. Matsuno now serves as the company’s COO while Wambai is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
“60% of Kenyans owe their bread and butter to agriculture and yet our small-holder farmers are really struggling. If I was going to do anything that would make the most impact, it had to do with these small-holder farmers,” says Judy Njogu.
Sourec: Kenya Wallstreet