Seso was founded five years ago to help streamline that process and now looks to expand into a one-stop-shop HR platform for the agriculture industry.
Michael Guirguis co-founded the startup after his cousin asked for his advice on whether or not her organic farm should expand.
Once he started talking to potential farm customers, he realized that farms could use a lot more help with their HR beyond just finding workers.
“When it comes to the back office, every farm we visited had thousands of filing cabinets,” Guirguis said.
“Your HR team is in the back office doing traditional HR work,” Guirguis said.
We’ve seen systems that pick apples and berries, kill weeds, plant trees, transport produce and more.
A huge piece of any of these products’ value prop is the amount of actionable information their on-board sensors collect.
In a sense, Orchard Robotics’ system is cutting out the middle man.
The system cameras can capture up to 100 images a second, recording information about every tree its passes.
Then the Orchard OS software utilizes AI to build maps with the data collected.
Globally, a third of the food produced is lost or wasted, and in Kenya, that figure stands at between 20% to 40%.
Farm to Feed, an agri-tech based in Kenya, is one of the fast-risers in the space.
Farm to Feed teams then sort, grade and dispatch the products to clients from its warehouse in Kenya’s Capital, Nairobi.
Data collectionOn top of the e-commerce platform, Van Enk said they are building a data platform by collecting granular data including on climate and drivers of food loss, for better farming outcome and to create a more circular food system.
I do think that food loss is such a huge impact opportunity and also a very good commercial opportunity,” she said.
Shamba Pride has since 2016 worked to enhance last-mile distribution for farm inputs and tackle price exploitation and quality issues for farmers through its merchant network dubbed digishops.
The agtech has, so far, built a network of merchants (agro-dealers) extending across 24 counties in Kenya, which represents just over half of the country.
The new funding, which includes $1.7 million equity, follows $1.1 million capital raised in 2021 from SAV and Gray Matters Capital.
“Agriculture distribution in rural communities is heavily controlled by agro-dealers who decide how farmers access inputs, services and training.
Shamba Pride sources inventory from partners such as French multinational Elephant Verve that supplies it with “climate-smart” farm inputs, which is part of the agtech’s strategy to build resilience for small-holder farmers.
