Khula is digitising small-scale farming by allowing emerging farmers to connect to the formal market with the tap of a screen.
khula is revolutionising small-scale farming by taking it digital. This award-winning app allows farmers to send fresh produce to the formal market with the tap of a phone.
As a crowd-sourcing platform, Khula is essentially one big virtual farm comprising over 2 000 active small-scale farmers who collectively supply fresh produce in bulk to large enterprises such as Pick n Pay, RocoMamas franchises and hotels.
Farmers can list their produce and track real-time inventory levels on the app, and can also share logistics costs. This benefits local truck owners who can register on the app and get notified when a delivery job is available, Uber-style.
Clients can also use the platform to order produce.
The two-year-old Khula was crowned the MTN Business App of the Year 2018. It also won Best Agricultural App at the same awards.
Khula was co-founded by Matthew Piper, who focuses on product design, strategic vision and direction; Karidas Tshintsholo, who leads business development; and Jackson Dyora, the brains behind the technical aspects of the app.
finweek spoke to Piper about the business.
Where did the idea for Khula come from?
We were inspired while on an entrepreneurial trip to Israel. We did research and found that 60% of the world’s arable land is in Africa and over half of all small businesses are agricultural-related, yet we don't know anything about these farmers. We don't know where they are, and we don't know how to efficiently connect them with clients. The system is very inefficient.
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