#3 Wefarm raises $5M for farmer-to-farmer digital network
In the United Kingdom and California, Wefarm secured $5 million in seed funding, led by Silicon Valley-based True Ventures. Wefarm enables the world’s small-scale farmers – many of whom live in remote areas without access to the internet – to connect with one another to solve problems, share ideas, and spread innovation. Wefarm solves a very simple problem for these farmers – where to get help. Wefarm’s service works both online and over SMS. Farmers can ask questions in their own language on anything related to agriculture and Wefarm uses machine learning and the power of the crowd to source the very best content and knowledge from a network of over 660,000 farmers.
Wefarm operates in Kenya and Uganda with plans to expand into Eastern and Sub-Saharan Africa. It has a 90 percent user retention rate and over 30 percent of farmers contribute their knowledge every month.