Africa Farmnet, an agritech startup that provides artificial intelligence and geographic information system-powered solutions to farmers and agribusiness, has been selected for the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub.
The company’s first product, MyAgro360, is an integrated farm management application that assists a farmer from the pre-production stage to the sale of farm produce with a comprehensive digital farm management and traceability application, pest and disease diagnosis and control, e-extension, last mile stakeholder management, location-based weather forecasting and agri-commerce platform.
MyAgro360 is an enhanced redesign of the earlier innovation, Igeza, which was second runner-up under the Frontier Innovation Award in the USAID FAWTech Challenge in 2018. Led by Kojo Ahiakpa, the company solutions empower farmers and agribusinesses to increase productivity and access ready markets to avoid post-harvest losses.
The Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub aims to democratize access to the resources needed to build a startup from the ground up – from free cloud credits to build the product to software and technical advisory. Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub benefits includes offering founders up to $150,000 in Azure credits, mentorship guidance from business leaders and technical experts and startup-friendly offers from Microsoft partners. Upon acceptance, startups are categorized into one of the following tiers – Ideate, Develop, Grow, Scale – and can access the next tier and additional Azure credits, resources, and benefits as they scale.