NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, May 23, 2014

Five Kenyan entrepreneurs receive 5,000 USD each to solve problems in the agriculture value chain. Nairobi- Kenya- 22nd May 2014: The Growth Hub; a Nairobi based high impact business accelerator is pleased to announce the five start-ups that have received 5,000USD in funding after a successful 16 week incubation program to develop a prototype, pilot and launch their innovation in the market.

In total 13 great agribusiness start-ups were accepted to join our incubator in February from a pool of 321 applicants. The thirteen we selected had the highest potential to create the most employment and income generating opportunities for youths and small holder farmers respectively.

However the most valuable part of participating in the program is the one-on-one sessions with the Growth Africa team of experienced facilitators, our discovery tool Impact Compass, successful mentors, their peers in the cohort as well as great speakers and experts.

Remarks

“We are excited about our most recent graduates because they are well equipped and capable of achieving great milestones in 2014 whilst scaling their impact” Patricia Jumi the MD at The Growth Hub.

THE START-UPS

Daluc Poultry:

Daluc is a poultry hatchery, breeding, feed mill and chick processing farm specializing in Kienyeji chicken, working with many small holder chicken rearing farmers. Although the Kienyeji chicken takes a bit longer to mature, they are cheaper to feed, fetch better market prices and are quite disease resistant thus suitable for rearing in East Africa.

The Team: Lucy Muiruri and Daniel Muiruri

Farm Lease

Land is a primary asset for development as it support the livelihoods of most rural people, infact 750 million people are directly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and survival.

Farm lease mobilizes idle arable land for agricultural production and leases it out to small holder farmers to ensure more land is put to effective agricultural use.By doing this Farm lease will put more arable land into production thus boosting food security in the country.

Key Team: Paul Njuguna, Elijah Mwathi and Collins Muriuki.

Kiara Agro

Kiara Agro manufactures cassava flour & starch and plans to venture into production of glucose syrup and alcohol from the cassava starch. The company sources cassava from the farmers in Ukambani, gives them better prices for their produce and income generating opportunities thus boosting production of drought resistant crops.

Kiara Agro is a family led start-up with Pinal Patel, Sneha Patel and Suresh Patel.

Lamaco Engineering

Founded a local inventor and creator; Lamaco makes machines for use in sisal fiber processing and also provides farm-gate processing for value addition before sisal leaves the farm to the market. By mobilizing sisal farmers to meet the demand, Lamaco helps them meet the export market quality requirements, access markets and fetch better prices for their sisal.

The team consists of Lawrence Matolo, Geoffrey Thoka and Patrick Mutinda Charles.

Garnet Enterprises

Immediately after a bumper harvest farmers sell their produce at very low prices due to lack of income, low market demand and proper storage facilities.

This is the problem that Garnet enterprises are solving by getting involved in post-harvest management in arid and semi-arid areas. Garnet currently mobilizes farmers, gives them proper storage for their grain, and helps them market their produce locally and abroad.

Team: Linda Kithuku, Managing Director, Gerald Aluoch, Finance Director and Festus Ouko,

ABOUT THE GROWTHHUB

We provide ambitious entrepreneurs and early stage start-ups with the very resources they require to grow their ventures into strong commercial businesses and social enterprises. Through our programmes start-ups get mentorship, business network, systems, processes and technology plus access to investors and funders. We strategically grow and accelerate high-impact, high-growth businesses that innovatively contribute to Africa’s social and economic progress in the following sectors

? Clean- and green-tech

? Mobile and IT

? Innovation in agribusiness.

? Financial inclusion

? Essential services (health, education, water & sanitation)

OUR NUMBERS

? 30 MENTORS: passionate business leaders sharing and giving back.

? $ 4.0M raised in investments & grants for and by the entrepreneurs.

? 38% of our start-ups raised funding within 6 months of the end of the programmes.

? 5 cohort-based acceleration programmes to be run in 2014.

? 56 start-ups and 110 entrepreneurs have gone through our programmes.

? Our start-ups have created 300 DIRECT JOBS and another 2,000 among suppliers and the extended value chain.