Safaricom Limited’s investment fund, Safaricom Spark Venture Fund has invested $1 million (Sh. 103 million) in a local data analysis start-up that connects small-scale farmers to financial services.
The fund injected part of the capital in FarmDrive, which is a startup in a bid to improve its innovative credit-scoring model and enhance its human resource base in research, analysis and insight generation.
According to Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore, FarmDrive one of the beneficiaries presents mobile-based technology that holds the potential to empower farmers with the critical access to finance and to help expand their access to other essential services.
Rita Kimani, the founder of FarmDrive says that the capital injection will go towards supporting the next phase and will enable them to up-scale their innovation, score more farmers, unlock more capital, and grow the agricultural loan portfolios of their financial institution partners.
“We have developed decision-making tools that financial institutions can use to create products that fit the economic and agronomic needs of smallholder farmers,” she says.
The agribusiness firm has registered over 3,000 farmers and disbursed loans of totaling Sh. 13 million. It was launched.
