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Surefire Ways To Grow A Successful AgroTech Startup

Emmanuel Nnaemeka

Ventureburn

  Building a successful AgroTech startup is hinged on strategies that are all-encompassing. It is all about employing a strong business model that feeds everyone and every section in the food chain and streamlining all the processes.
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There are various successful AgroTechs in Nigeria. They include FarmCrowdy, ThriveAgric, Groupfarma, Farm Kart, etc. In this article, I discuss five surefire ways to grow your agro-tech into a successful startup. The first way to build a successful AgroTech company is to always empower stakeholders (from farmers, to investors, employees, and so on). How do you empower them? Educate them on what AgroTech is all about, its mission, vision, and goals and objectives. Further, train and educate them on how to make AgroTech successful. Aside from empowering stakeholders on vision and mission, empowering farmers in the area of financial management and savings, as well as distribution, will create possibilities for growth. The next step is to make agro-businesses under your startup investible by coordinating and organizing your startup in a way that makes investors trust you.  Building an investible AgroTech startup is all about having the capacity to attract investors because they believe in the profitability of your startup and the ability to generate attractive ROIs. 
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Aside from seeing an investible business from the prism of money and finance, experts have stated that an investible business includes environmental, social, and governance practices (ESG) as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). There are four ways to make agro-businesses investible: i.) build AgroTechs on transparency; ii.) build a strong team around your startup, which helps the agro-businesses and farmers reach peak performances; iii.) have high-profile relationships and quality advisory board within your business space; and iv.) create accessibility products that guarantee recurring profits.  Another way to make your Agro-Tech business successful is by merging farmers with ready-made markets, such as industries and households. However, the best is to merge them into industries. For instance, you can link cattle-rearers to big factories that make use of milk to make their products. All you have to do is to create a digital market platform – e-commerce – where farmers meet retailers, industrialists and end-users.  FinTech as the name sounds is joining of two words – Finance and Technology – centres on aiding financial transactions using technology.
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Incorporating FinTech in Agro-Tech can yield more productivity for farmers and stakeholders. There are a lot of ways FinTech can help farmers. For example, farmers can access loans and credits by FinTech services. The FinTech service has been described as flexible compared to traditional banks. Another service FinTech can offer is savings and investments, which can be beneficial to both farmers and stakeholders. Furthermore, FinTech can help farmers in the area of insurance, especially when farming is known to have high-risk capabilities. Therefore, you can incorporate FinTech services into your Agro-Tech platforms where transaction and monitoring can be done.  It is a well-known fact that agriculture is prone to several unforeseen, deadly risk factors such as climate and environmental problems, pest invasion, plant and animal diseases, etc. Building an early-warning platform that informs and educate farmers about incoming risks and how to avert them will ensure a successful AgroTech startup. On your platform, you can offer risk-aversion advice and how to develop a coping mechanism. Hence, you need agro-experts on your team who can offer scientific advice. 

Final Words 

Growing a successful AgroTech startup requires implementing the right strategies that make agro-businesses profitable. The first step is to empower stakeholders, connect farmers to investors, vice versa, and as well connecting farmers with a larger market. Also, providing FinTech services on your platform can increase farmers’ performance in the area of finance. Finally, putting in place early-warning systems that protect stakeholder farmers will go a long way in building trust and as well create more profitability.  Featured Image Source: Ventureburn
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