Our Founder and CEO, Mr. Wanjohi Njathi was featured by Startup Daily from Chicago, Illinois.
Kenya-based Bernard is a husband and father of two young boys. Growing up, he would often visit his grandparents’ farm. He watched while his family had to sell off livestock in order to afford medical bills, school fees, and other necessities.
This experience shaped his thinking and sparked his entrepreneurial spirit. He dreamt of solving the problem he grew up seeing– a problem that was near and dear to his heart. Identifying opportunity amidst this problem, he launched Lofte Kesho to solve the “dead capital” problem that affects farmers across Africa.
About Lofte Kesho
Agriculture is the backbone of the Kenyan economy, contributing roughly 50% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In fact, over 70% of the Kenyan workforce are farmers. Despite these metrics, agricultural productivity has stagnated in recent years.
Agriculture is the backbone of the Kenyan economy
A primary concern among smallholder livestock farmer is “dead capital.” These farmers own livestock which have inherent value, but often lack the necessary working capital. As a result, there is a need to collateralize their livestock.
In order to effectively collateralize livestock, farmers need data. The number and type of livestock must be accurately tracked and accounted for to be able to accurately assess value. Such data has been hard to come by, until now.
Lofte Kesho is an award winning agri-fintech startup allowing farmers to unlock capital against their livestock. This web-based platform connects to animal ear tags to harness data and unlock farmer-livestock profiles that are then validated as insurable and lendable.
Collecting farmer and livestock data leads to unlocking financial services such as livestock insurance and loans for farmers against their livestock as assets. The Lofte Kesho team has already unlocked 50,000 livestock orders, with a goal of assisting 500,000 farmers across Africa.
How You Can Help
Seeking smart money. Lofte Kesho is looking for an investor that is not only willing to help fund unfulfilled orders, but one that will grow with them. There is much work to do in a sector where under 1% of livestock have been used as collateral! Building an animal database of over 60 million cows, goats and sheep in Kenya is no small task. And, they don’t plan on stopping there! Lofte Kesho’s aim is empower farmers across Africa to unlock capital against their livestock. If you are interested in joining Lofte Kesho on this journey, reach out to Bernard at bernardnjathi@gmail.com.
Advice to Fellow Founders
(1) Be resilient
(2) Really look for a true problem and solve it
(3) Please do not outsource your learning, go deep into your startup
(4) Never delegate your Founder’s Spirit! Lesson learned the hard way
Bernard Njathi, Founder of Lofte Kesho
Congrats to Bernard, our Founder of the Day!
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