About the Startup:
CurubaTech is a human centred solution where health, environmental impact and social justice meet. We impulse sustainable agriculture, giving farmers (especially smallholders) affordable access to experts that can aid them through the whole process. Using photos, videos and texts we connect farmers with remote experts on a regular basis, making knowledge accessible to everyone and ultimately empowering farmers worldwide. We improve productivity by 43% and reduce costs by 38%, while giving consumers healthier and more nutritious food. Additionally, our platform connects consumers and farmers with just one click. Allowing consumers to understand the social, economic and environmental impact of their consumption behaviour.
Business Stage:
Pre-revenue.
Management Team:
Our team has a multi discipline, gender, age and cultural approach. As part of only 11% of agTech startups in Latin America lead by woman, we emphasis on being inclusive. Most of our team was born in Colombia, but have been raised, educated or worked worldwide allowing for local knowledge with a global outlook. We are also an age diverse group (mid-twenties to early seventies), combining enthusiasm and new ideas, with experience and maturity. Finally, having, engineers, architects, economists, agronomist, and developers we believe that a multidisciplinary approach is the only way to create unique solutions that can creatively transform the agri-food ecosystem.
Problem and Opportunity:
Worldwide 70% of smallholder farmers are living in extreme poverty, meaning entire families are enduring chronic hunger which is affecting the development of over 840 million people. Today individual farmers are dedicating most of their time to working the fields in order to support large extended families. Yet over 30% of food is being wasted during production, this is largely due to the fact that 90% of farmers are lacking access to the right tools and knowledge to make their crops sustainable, profitable and prosperous. This is affecting the whole system: [1] farmers living conditions are aggravating, [2] younger generations don’t want to harvest the fields, [3] the use of chemicals is out of control, [4] consumers aren’t able to access nutritious foods, [5] knowing where food comes from is basically impossible and [6] end consumers are completely disconnected. All this in a world with a constantly growing population, where urban populations are growing, environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important and arable land is difficult to find.
What makes our startup unique?
CurubaTech adds to existing efforts instead of competing with them. We are the ideal allies, with important advantages, [1] we provide impartial assistance and [2] we work with leading universities, ensuring R+D+I processes to truly transform rural areas of Colombia. By understanding the technological barriers that exist within farming communities, we use existing technology to connect them with real experts. Allow experts to work remotely with access to historical data, improving decision-making processes. Finally, we go one step further and with the information collected we generate traceability for the final consumer, a user who is not usually approached but who is vital within the chain.
Our go-to-market plan:
We aren't contacting individual farmers, but rather partnering with key entities that can benefit from financing technical assistance for farmers such as banks, NGOs and large associations. Focusing on players up the chain gives us [1] a wider reach, [2] secures payments, [3] reduces marketing costs and [4] ensures farmers stay with us for longer.
Traction & Milestones:
We have a waitlist of 2,000 farmers. We have 35 active farmers and 2 agro experts. We have 8 partnerships with entities that give us access to farmers and experts. In 2021 we won Thought For Food and the Kitchner Foundation's farmer impact prize. We have got both national and international grants.
Funding:
[1] Bootstrapped, [2] family and friends, [3] grants and prizes
Raising:
Next 6 months: 350,000 USD
