This Kenyan Startup is Helping Smallholder Farmers Boost their Income 

Kenyan agritech startup, Shamba Pride, enables smallholder farmers to boost their income and productivity by connecting them to quality inputs, services, and information. 

The startup has raised $1.1 million in funding to help it expand across the country and roll out solutions to over 1,000 stores. Two of the investors involved in the funding are Seedstars Africa Ventures and Gray Matters Capitals.

Founded by Samuel Munguti, the Kenyan agritech startup is a one-stop online-to-offline platform that uses technology-powered DigiShops, run by women and youth, for smallholder farmers to boost their income by increasing their access to financial services, education, and market connections.

Last-mile agro-dealers and cooperative entrepreneurs can use Samba Pride to digitise their operations and provide quality products and services to smallholder farmers, which will result in a community of micro-entrepreneurs offering assistance to the society.

“Shamba Pride is revolutionising rural distribution systems for African farmers by transforming from traditional and informal systems to modern trade. Through Shamba Pride, existing last-mile agro entrepreneurs are able to digitalise their operations and provide smallholder farmers with right and affordable technology, quality products and services. The model establishes a network of smart micro-entrepreneurs serving the smallholder farmer community, allowing farmers to increase their farm productivity, sustain their employment and their household income”, said the chief executive officer and founder Samuel Munguti. 

“We are excited to have Seedstars Africa Ventures and Gray Matters Capital join the Shamba Pride family. Our momentum to revolutionise last mile distribution systems for African farmers has gained new momentum. The investment will propel our national growth to service hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers while creating a reliable community of smart micro-entrepreneurs offering improved services to farmers”. 

Despite providing concrete adaptive solutions, talented African early-stage businesses continue to lack investment, according to Maxime Bouan, a partner at Seedstars Africa Ventures.

“We are convinced Shamba Pride’s online-to-offline model is perfectly suited to tap into a huge market opportunity by upskilling existing value chains and finally offering farmers the quality counterparts they deserve. Beyond capital, we will continue to actively support the company through additional market linkages and corporate partnerships within Africa and beyond to guarantee farmers obtain the best value”, he said.     

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