As one of the third-place winners of the FINCA Ventures Prize Competition, the Wa-based agritech startup Sommalife has secured a $10,000 grant as part of the winning package.
The FINCA Ventures Prize supports entrepreneurs with disruptive business models, products, or technologies that create meaningful impact for poor and low-income people in developing markets in the agriculture and health sectors. To celebrate social impact, FINCA awarded $400,000 in grants to 12 social enterprises working in sub-Saharan Africa.
Founded in 2020 by Mawuse Gyisun and JohnCarl Dunyo, Sommalife is digitising the shea supply chain. Using its proprietary software, TreeSyt, the company digitises 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 digitise 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: FINCA
