Kenyan agri-tech startup FarmDrive has partnered farming insurance firm ACRE Africa to utilise weather data for the provision of credit and insurance products to smallholder farmers throughout the East African country.
FarmDrive, which leverages alternative datasets to create comprehensive credit scores for farmers to allow them to have access to financial services, has had a big year, having recently won the Thomson Reuters Startup Challenge and raised funding from Mercy Corps Social Venture Fund and Engineers Without Borders Canada.
The startup has now partnered ACRE Africa in order to create accurate and data-centred products for the unlocking and securing of credit for farmers in Africa.
FarmDrive will incorporate ACRE Africa’s comprehensive weather and climate data into its credit scoring algorithm to increase the predictive accuracy and suitability of the scores and products.
In turn, ACRE Africa will utilise the data created and aggregated by FarmDrive to develop better and more targeted insurance products for smallholder farmers.
“We are very delighted to integrate the data analytics expertise of ACRE and FarmDrive to build inclusive digital financial services for smallholder farmer loans and micro insurance. Through this partnership, we’ll promote sustainable agriculture and transform farming into business in Africa and beyond,” Peris Bosire, co-founder of FarmDrive said.
ACRE Africa managing director Rahab Kariuki said agriculture is becoming more important for food security and job creation, with predictive analytics set to be crucial for the provision of efficient risk transfer and finance across the value chain.
“Combining weather with behaviour data, market data and other alternative datasets collected by FarmDrive helps us make predictive analytics possible. We are therefore glad to be providing our expertise in this field for a venture that will impact small holder farmers in Kenya and beyond,” Kariuki said.
