Farmcrowdy gets GSMA’s $325,000 to drive mobile apps for farmers
Nigeria’s first and leading digital agriculture platform, Farmcrowdy, is now richer by $325,000 in form of grant from dedicated GSMA global team Mobile for Development as part of the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund.
The grant will allow the multiple award-winning startup develop a mobile app for smartphones and feature phones that will enable farmers and Technical Field Specialists interact about farm related activities. The app will also deliver other services to farmers, such as information, electronic payments and training.
The award was made public at the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, Spain.
The Fund unveiled in 2016, was set up to provide selected start-ups in Africa and Asia Pacific with grant funding, technical assistance and the opportunity to partner with mobile operators in order to scale their products and services into sustainable businesses with positive socio-economic impact.
Business Hilkights gathered that other recipients of the 2017 equity-free grant award include Ugandan Fintech startup Ensibuuko and online mpayment platform LipaMobile, Tanzanian Micro-Health Insurance product Jammi Africa, Kenyan education mobile platform Kytabu and Optimetriks, Zambian Musanga Logistics, Nigerian e-learning platform PrepClass, Egyptian Carpooling app Raye7 and multinational knowledge-based network, Lynk.
In his remarks, Co-Founder and CEO of Farmcrowdy, Onyeka Akumah said, “we at Farmcrowdy are honoured to have our hard work recognised and supported by GSMA. We are thrilled about the possibilities this grant will provide as we continually strive to remain at the forefront of innovation in Agritech across Nigeria. This award will play a crucial part in the continued journey towards scaling our activities across the country while building our relationships with the telecommunication partners of GSMA across Nigeria.”
It would be recalled that Farmcrowdy, the only African startup from Techstars Atlanta’s 2017 cohort, recently announced a $1million seed fund led by international and local investors including Social Capital, Cox Enterprises and Techstars Ventures.
