Sommalife, the shea-focused agtech platform, has been selected as one of the eleven recipients from the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation.
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation supports digital startups to test innovative use-cases, partnerships and business models to improve the sustainability and scalability of solutions that positively impact low-income populations most vulnerable to climate risks. Selected companies receive an equity-free grant of between £100,000 and £250,000 to pilot and scale their innovation with technical support from the GSMA.
Founded in 2020 by Mawuse Gyisun and JohnCarl Dunyo, Sommalife is digitizing the shea supply chain. Using its proprietary software, TreeSyt, the company digitizes the operations of smallholder farmers, empowers them to be climate-resilient through its conservation activities, and connects them to international markets. Farmers are thus able to earn fair wages, usually 21% above local market prices, while corporate buyers also get access to traceable commodities.
Since 2022, the company has onboarded 65,000 farmers on its platform and has connected 15,000 farmers to international markets. Sommalife makes revenue by charging a 30% margin on the commodities sold. Revenues have grown from $2,000 in 2020 to $1.2 million in 2022.
As part of the partnership with the GSMA program, Sommalife seeks to enhance its software to digitize 90,000 female smallholder farmers, create climate resilience and economic gains for them and train them in sustainable agriculture. The farmers will be supported to raise 50,000 seedlings and protect 1,500 acres of shea parklands in their communities. In the long term, these conservation activities will contribute to carbon sequestration and enable trained farmers to participate in the carbon markets.
Source: GSMA
