Kenya’s Selina Wamucii to use $100k grant to add 2000 farmers, enter Europe

Kenyan agritech platform Selina Wamucii plans to use a $100 000 grant it received from a Dubai-based innovation and partnership programme to improve its mobile platform, recruit 2000 more farmers and to enter European markets, says its communication officer.

The Nairobi-based B2B sourcing platform — founded in 2015 by Karuiki Gaita and CEO John Oroko (pictured above) — made the announcement of the grant it received from Dubai-based Expo Live‘s Innovation Impact Grant Programme yesterday.

Expo Live aims to accelerate and promote life-improving innovations and provides grant recipients with business guidance and promotion, and a chance to showcase their work at Expo 2020 Dubai.

In an email to Ventureburn, Timothy Wahoma, Selina Wamucii’s communications officer, said the startup is looking to recruit an additional 2000 farmers on top of its existing 3165 farmers.

In addition, he said the company also wants to assist its farmers attain the GlobalG.A.P food safety certification.

“This will open up for our farmers new and lucrative markets,” Wahoma explained.

Selina Wamucii will use $100k grant to recruit 2000 more farmers, improve its mobile platform and enter the European market

He added that the startup intends to further develop its platform by adding Swahili and two other dialects. He said although Selina Wamucii has not secured any other investment to date, it was looking to expand its operations to the “European market mainly”.

Selina Wamucii claims that through its USSD platform — which digitises the entire supply chain without requiring farmers have access to the internet or smartphones — it can “shorten and transform the agriculture supply chain” and in doing so pass efficiency savings on to both smallholder farmers and buyers.

Wahoma would not disclose how much revenue the startup has generated citing that the startups is in ongoing talks with “some prospective investors that limit us from giving out some details”.

Expo Live vice president Yousuf Caires said in a statement yesterday that the Kenyan startup addresses all of Expo 2020 Dubai’s sub-themes, namely: opportunity, mobility and sustainability.

Last year, during Expo Live’s first cycle another Kenyan company — Eco Fuels Kenya — also received a $100 000 Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant.

Featured image: Selina Wamucii CEO John Oroko (Supplied)