Peer-to-peer agritech startup WeFarm has raised £1.3-million in seed funding. The round was led by UK-based VC, LocalGlobe.
“Connecting farmers to relevant advice from other farmers is a completely new approach,” says founder and CEO of WeFarm, Kenny Ewan, in a press release.
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WeFarm’s network allows for small-scale farmers to share and access crowdsourced information from other farmers.
“The majority of information delivered to people living in poverty is top-down, whereas we are using a crowdsourcing model to unlock generations worth of grassroots knowledge, ideas, and experience among farmers.”
The seed funding amount will be used to grow WeFarm’s network.
WeFarm has a community of farmers across Africa and South America, being available via feature phones or smartphones
WeFarm’s revenue model consists of generating user data on supply chains and commodities in the ‘developing world’ and supplying this to governments, NGOs, and businesses.
Since launching in 2015, WeFarm has grown its community to over 100 000 farmers across Kenya, Uganda, and Peru.
“We believe that this network, whether delivered on feature or smart phones, will, over time, become an important channel for farmers into the wider food supply chain,” adds LocalGlobe partner Saul Klein.
Ewan says the company wants to scale to 100-million farmers over the next five years.
“There is still massive global inequality around access to information, but by designing services for basic mobile phones you can create social impact on an unprecedented scale as well as develop a highly profitable social business,” concludes Ewan.
WeFarm was part of the Wayra UK Accelerator in 2015.
Feature image via WeFarm.
