In Kenya, Samuel Munguti, an agriculturalist with a decade of experience in FMCG giants like Coca-Cola and L'Oréal, launched Shamba Pride in 2016 to address the inefficiencies in last-mile distribution of farm inputs. The platform focuses on empowering agro-dealers, the crucial intermediaries between farmers and suppliers, by digitizing operations to enhance quality, traceability, and access to information. Shamba Pride, having raised a $3.7 million pre-Series A round from EDFI AgriFI and Seedstars Africa Ventures, aims to expand its digital tools to agro-dealers for improved business control and farmer support.
Agro-dealers play a pivotal role in agricultural distribution in Kenya, yet face challenges like price exploitation and counterfeit products due to inefficiencies and lack of information. Shamba Pride's digital platform seeks to formalize agro-dealer operations, offering services in record-keeping, inventory management, and financial management. By connecting retailers to manufacturers and wholesalers, it ensures quality inputs at competitive rates, benefiting farmers with services like order placement, extension services, market linkages, and financial services.
Shamba Pride categorizes agro-dealers into a structured trade program, with the most advanced being termed "digishops," which source supplies exclusively through Shamba Pride and enjoy benefits like credit access through banking partnerships. Currently, Shamba Pride boasts 2,700 stores across 24 counties in Kenya, serving over 100,000 active farmers. The recent funding will support the expansion of the digishop network, which is crucial for revenue generation and offers farmers significant savings and productivity gains. Shamba Pride's ambitious growth plans include scaling across Kenya and exploring markets in Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Source: agfundernews.com