FarmDrive co-founder and MD Rita Kimani. photo | diana ngila
Eight Kenyan start-ups are amongst 18 companies to benefit from a
Sh1.8 billion ($18.4 million) innovation programme by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAid).
Most of the local awardees are using technology to address agriculture and energy challenges.
Companies
picked for the Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) programme include
FarmDrive, an IT firm that gathers information from small-scale farmers
and uses it to build credit scoring models that financial institutions
can use to provide loans to farmers.
FarmDrive is also
a recipient of investment from Safaricom through its Spark fund. PayGo
Energy, a fuel-stove distribution company that uses mobile money and
smart meter technology to sell cooking gas on a pay-as-you-go basis also
qualified for the DIV programme.
“DIV supports
innovative ideas, pilots and tests them using cutting-edge analytical
methods, and scales solutions that demonstrate widespread impact and
cost-effectiveness,” says a statement from USAid.
Under
the programme, USAid provides grants of up to $15 million to startups.
The value of funding is based on the grantee’s track record and growth
stage.
The funding is provided in three stages — proof
of concept; testing and positioning; and transitioning to scale. USAid
says 80 African companies have benefited from the programme since it was
launched.
Other Kenyan ventures benefiting from the programme include
Sanivation, which converts human waste into briquettes, and PowerGen,
which builds last-mile power distribution networks for high-density
population areas.
Another energy sector venture,
Powerhive, provides solar microgrids in western Kenya and is working on a
programme to lease low-cost appliances to customers.
Keheala
is a feature-phone and Internet-based digital platform that uses
unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) technology to deliver
behavioural interventions and disease management tools to increase
tuberculosis drug adherence.
Tulaa is a mobile money
product for smallholder farmers to lay away and borrow money. In East
Africa, Uganda’s Burn Manufacturing and Instiglio will also benefit as
will Devergy, a social energy service company from Tanzania that is
commercializing affordable solar micro-grids.
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