 that leads agriculture to financial technologies. So what to do is you are building a commodity exchange market which is relatively new in Kenya and we provide farmers with access to storage, well equipped houses so that they can keep their produce until they can get a customer who can buy it at a good price, at the reasonable price and then at the same time they can be able to access loans and they need it at any time and also they can trade on agricultural commodity platform so basically it's like a stock market but now for agricultural commodities for agricultural goods, where you buy and sell commodities because the prices of different agricultural produce usually fluctuates from time to time So how did you come about Radava? So it started in 2021 I was fresh from university I studied telecommunications engineering but then now there was this program called just retalent investor so when I saw it and I was job hunting I thought it's a good opportunity for me to try something and therefore I applied to join the program and that's when we were trained on how to start businesses and I met also a Havako founder Isaac and Ivan so we came together and then we were actually we did market research and then we found out that there is a great gap in the agricultural market sector Like I'm just trying to think what you studied versus what you do with the relationship is quite vast So it's very different from telecommunications engineering I studied it but I did not practice it say for the internships but then the same time as it's the skills that I gained as the chief technology officer for Radava because I can understand technology and am well equipped to serve as chief technology officer but in terms of relations, no I took a different path after graduation I'm interested why did you not follow through what you studied in campus How many years did you spend in Jekwat? So I studied for 5 years telecommunications engineering Initially my dream was to become a journalist but then now I had in class 6-7 the teacher noticed I had some form of hearing problem so I got really worried that I may be in front of people taking price statements because when you compare my notes in high school primary school it was very different from what the teacher was dictating so that made me worried so I thought doing the backend engineering is more the wires just helping in the telecommunications landscape from the background but then it wasn't exactly my passion so Jamship offered itself and that's how I began doing business Interesting So how has the journey been building Radava to where it is right now you said you started Radava in 2021 so it's about 2-3 years So how has the journey been growing Radava from zero days or one day to 2 years Very challenging At first it was extremely exciting to start something new to make a come up with a business that is helping people it was very exciting but then now you have these days when nothing is making sense sometimes maybe it's the funding that you're not getting customers that you have to deal with just very very challenging at some time but I'm grateful for my team because the team I believe the people who have kept me going so far they are incredibly amazing so the journey has been with a lot of challenges but also we had our up and down the fact that we are making a difference in the lives of farmers in Kenya So you deal with what scale of farmers We deal with farmers who deal with grains and cereals so that we can be able to store their produce over a period of time mostly it's up to one year but because the kind of farmers we are targeting at those cereals which are staple foods in the region which includes maize, wheat, rice, sogam millet and beans because of their demand so they go first, those are the kind of customers that we target the smaller farmers You've mentioned that and then I've remembered Lately of course you know the discussion that has been happening in terms of the prices and how it is going high in terms of maize actually like I think a week or two ago I was watching news and you know farmers were complaining that the government and the subsidies and everything that is happening Now how does that affect your business with the farmers especially particularly with the fluctuating cost of inflation Okay so that is why we are here We actually hedge the farmers against the price risk because for agricultural commodities the price usually fluctuates from time to time like for example in the beginning of the year you can find that a bag a 90kg bag of maize sells for like 2600 but then when sometime in June it comes to about 5400 so there's a big fluctuation which also affects which you can see with the rising prices of food So what you do, the farmer is usually the one who is most affected because at the harvest season when everybody is harvesting the maize because the seasons are the same so if every farmer is harvesting what they do is that they rush to the market because they have been holding onto their produce from the planting, harvesting slowly waiting so their first instinct is to sell it to the market but the problem is that because everybody is harvesting at that time so the prices are really down and they are like depressed prices so when they consider the revenue that they get from selling their produce is different from the amount of money they invested through the planting, harvesting, all that period so what we do we give them a place where they can store the agricultural produce until they can find, it can fetch a better price for them so they can hold on to it a little longer until they can find a customer who can buy it at a good price and also we have a category of customers we call institutions so these are people who require large supply of grains so let's say like schools they usually say their budget at the beginning of the year so when at that time when they calculate their price they say like this amount we shall keep like 500,000 towards food but then what happens in June is that the prices have gone up so they could spend over 900,000 so what they do they come to ask the service that you offer they buy, we give them receipts which is issued by the warehouse receipt system council that certifies warehouses so these receipts they can just come buy at the beginning of the year and keep withdrawing the cereals and grains anytime so it hedges them against the price fluctuation like that you've mentioned something about categories of the people you do business with one of them was institutions what are the other categories you deal with okay we have three categories of customers the first ones are the farmers, the small order farmers who deal with grains and cereals for these people category they are like prime customers so we give them access to storage and help them to get a good market so they can sell their produce at a price that they consider worthy and relevant and then we have the second category that's the institutions so these are people like prisons, schools just institutions that require a large supply of grains and cereals kama gideri schools make gideri every day so they are the ones who actually are the customers to the farmers so we hedge them against price fluctuation by the fact that they can buy and then they can withdraw anytime so they lock in the price at a certain time like if they buy in january and then with that the price of january so they have the receipt and they can withdraw from the warehouse at anytime through the year and then now we hedge them against the price risk and then we have this individual and institutional investors these are people who are not necessarily interested but they want to benefit from it so what they do is they invest in our commodity exchange platform so it's available at arox.radaba.co that one works like a stock market where you can buy when the prices are a bit slow then you sell it again when the prices are a bit high so in between that period you can gain profit out of it so you can either withdraw if you want to or you can sell it to someone else by transferring the receipt to someone else like me to you so now the goods come to you again and you don't have to worry about the storage because we handle all of that those are the three categories that you serve right now you mentioned something again that I wanted to pick up and ask two things, let me start with the first one we have seen let me give an example with when president Uhuru was in power and he gave a subsidy for commodities where he gave unga at 90 shillings I can't remember well how much unga was retailing for because unga had gone quite high and then he gave it so he had a huge amount of a subsidy so that time we had a problem with farmers hiding their unga because they were like the cost of producing this particular bail of unga or particular bail of maize was quite high now you're giving it out at a subsidy, how does that affect you when you're done with this one? for us that it plays a role but the question will be where the subsidy came from so for the government they also buy from the farmers at some time but then that is not enough actually there are times when the produce in the country is usually maize so what people dealing in this sector like us we do is importation from Zambia coming through Tanzania to meet the demand of the food insecurity because the amount of maize or beans or the serious that's produced sometimes is just not enough for the entire country so when that happens normally people in this sector we resort to importing the grains and the cereals then selling it but then now consider if the farmer had kept their grains a little bit so now not all the grains that are produced during the harvest season are sold immediately to the market that's why we give them a place to hold on to it so that's not only gives them the hedge against the price risk but it also ensures that the country is for secure in this different month ensuring that we have supply throughout the year so it's affected our business in the form of the scarcity of the commodities so you could see the warehouses were empty completely but the other result was like importing importing the grains from other nations so you help farmers import or what role do you play in that not the farmers because at that time they have already sold their produce so it's like just to supply the people who need the product not exactly the farmers but if the farmer wants to get the grains we can help them with that in your opinion or with your years of experience what are some of the challenges facing smallholder farmers the challenge is the fact that most of them are in the interior of the country so reaching out to them has been a little bit of a problem especially they want to don't have access to phones but what we have tried to do is reaching out through the cooperative unions because most of the farmers are part of cooperative society and then the other challenge is adoption of technology because we also facilitated knowing that this farmer wants to sell when they contact us using means either phone or that has been a little bit of a challenge and then the other one is convincing the farmer that they can actually hold on to their produce what they want to do is just see the money but now is giving you a price that is lower than what you have gotten if you held on to your produce a little bit longer so when you tell them to hold on to their produce a little bit longer what does that mean for the market I mean what does that mean for us consumers when you tell farmers to hold on to their produce but you still have the supply it means you will have supply of the agricultural produce throughout the year because imagine if the farmers sold at the same time like all the food was trashed into the market at the same time so by the end right now we are in August by September the entire grain in Meisha it has finished and then now what happens from that the planting seasons are in seasons and the planting season hasn't even yet begun the harvesting as you wait so now that causes the scarcity of the commodity which causes the food prices to rise up but now if they like released in portions in portions it's actually hedging you as the final consumer that's what it means to you okay now I get it because I'm wondering once they hold back we the consumers or rather them the normal people that is Wajikwenda and the rest what's the cycle looking like but now I want to ask how many people do you work with so far we are 7 full time but during the harvest season especially because many farmers are bringing in their grains and cereals we hire casually up to around 30 on a casual basis but you're hoping to draw a team because the market is demanding also as it grows you being a woman I don't want to call it a male dominated arena but the society is yet to embrace women doing for lack of a better word hard difficult tasks how has your position as a woman impacted the sector you are in the good thing is that me as a woman have always been in a male dominated thing beginning with my course which I studied we were around 10 ladies in our class we were over about 50 so I got to build my strength over there in our engineering class we were 10 ladies in a class of 50 but the commodities market is majorly male dominated so what I have to tell myself always is that I can do it and also to believe in yourself not to see like sometimes when you try to see obstacles you can actually see them so just do my thing and if people are judging or something that's now for me I'm just focusing on what I need to do but sometimes there are stereotypes like a woman something more masculine so far I've had a good support system they support my ideas beginning with my father and also my co-founders they are amazing and they give me the platform to keep shining and encouraging so it keeps me going at least the people in my inner circle support me so now the outer circle I can deal with that is probably men fearing to approach you because of the career path you've chosen and the work you do but the good thing is that I don't mind I am a woman I am powerful and I keep breaking those glass ceilings the writer will come along I'm sure who won't be intimidated by me of course so what are some of the challenges you've experienced in your line of work as a woman no just generally generally in terms of business the challenge of majorly first is fundraising it's like a really really difficult although we have managed to raise some money from one investor actually but fundraising is very difficult because this field is capital intensive and our competitors are raising in hundreds of millions that has hindered the progress the pace at which we are moving the other one is the government regulations because the field we are operating in in agricultural commodities is slightly regulated by the government so we have to just find a way to navigate and keep tabs with what's happening so that one is a bit of a challenge and finally the other challenge is climate change let me say that because of unpredictable weather patterns affecting the farmers it also determines the kind of yields that they get so what are some of the lessons you've picked along the way as you do business the lessons I've learned first it's good for a business person it's good to have a co-founder at least they keep things going at first he is not the first business I began I did it alone and it didn't run out but especially when you get a good co-founder things are becoming much much easier because you can be in multiple places at once by sending your co-founder is doing this as I bring the interview so they can keep the business going as you do something else and I've also learned to ask for help not to be afraid of asking for help especially from people who have been through it before not only does it show humility but it's an easier way of navigating the business world and that also means leaning on mentors mentors are very important they help you to grow faster and to avoid the things that's if you follow their advice and lastly to believe in yourself that's very important and just to find a way of encouraging yourself especially for the low moments entrepreneurship is usually crowned with glamaraz but we took a ground in a different it's very tough so you have to find a way of encouraging yourself just have a strong support system and when nothing is making sense at all those are some of the lessons I've learned and also to keep trending what's happening in the market that's very important for every entrepreneur so you can evolve as the market changes so you can change fast with it if you do not you might miss out on market opportunities you have a background in communication marketing and technology do you offer communication or rather marketing strategy to your clients I repeat the question now that you have done you know something in communication, marketing and technology do you give your clients communication or marketing strategy it depends for the institutions they just want to get that product so for them they don't need a marketing strategy for the investors the institution investors were investing in the commodity exchange market marketing strategy not but we provide a real time market information we provide them with the historical data of how the grains and cereals performed for the last 4 years so they can see in form of graphs so they can see how the trend is then with that we advise them on when is the right time to buy and when is the right time to sell for if you are going to get a good return for the farmers we actually help them to get the customers themselves training on how to interpret the market so the real time market information it shows them we have a system called price flow so this one shows real time market information across the country for different grains and cereals so we train them how to use that so they can know like maize in Nairobi at Nyamakima market today it's going for this price they can make informed decision if they want to sell how different markets are performing so they can simply sell it to this market instead of just crashing to their local market which is usually the case like crashing into the market we show them the prices across the country so they know if I send my produce in Mombasa right now I can get a better return compared to selling it here in Kitale and also we reach out to them because they help them to find buyers we call them warehouse and when we find a buyer let's say the farmer brought their produce and they said I'm not willing to sell less than 2400 per bag so that's recorded and we ensure that when we get someone who is willing to buy above that price we call them and ask here we've got this person they're buying at 2600 or 2800 are you willing to sell here like that that's quite nice as we almost come to a conclusion of this discussion and want to ask what are some of the current marketing trends happening in the agribusiness sector that you would mention marketing trends in our sector yes so in the agricultural space the marketing trends has mainly been in form of e-commerce where there are many platforms that are coming up where they are linking sellers to buyers that's one thing and then there is also the there are also other businesses that are buying directly from the farmer but now the problem with that is they cannot buy everything from every farmer that's why we provide them with storage where they can hold onto it another trend is digital marketing which is very important the moment you put out you are selling this and then you amplify it to that page it's easy to especially on social media it's easy to get a customer but from what you have realized most of the farmers we reach out to are not on social media but are traders and middlemen who usually try to buy from the farmers at really depressed prices so if a farmer can put their produce out there and amplify it on social media platforms like Facebook especially Facebook and Instagram to some extent but especially Facebook it's easier for them to get a buyer what are your aspirations in terms of business and as a person your aspirations in terms of business and as a person yes your future aspirations sorry your future aspirations so for Radeva Makantel we are intending to reach out to 500,000 farmers not just in Kenya but in the whole of Africa because what you are trying to do is connecting a chain of warehouses not just in Kenya but in East Africa and the whole of Africa such that the farmer deposits their grains and cereals in the warehouses in Kitale that's where we are primarily based and then they get a buyer who is maybe in another country like Zimbabwe the buyer can simply withdraw the same quality and quantity from the warehouse in Zimbabwe by just showing the receipt that you offer digitally so that to enhance cross border trade among the nations that's one of our biggest goal and also to in the process to help them to get really amazing prizes for them and we are also intending to trade a lot of commodities to be the market makers because this is in Kenya is relatively a new field and the players are very few so we want to be the market makers so that the people who are determining the market prices of different commodities and to be the reference point for agricultural commodities if somebody wants insights on how is maize doing how is maize doing it is us that they are going to consider personally I intend to do my master's degree yeah and I hope by then Mr. Wright will have come Mr. Wright is coming Mr. Wright is on the way he is coming but thank you thank you for coming I wanted to use that camera to give us a parting shot and let us know where we can find you and your business online parting shot to anyone who is hearing this is just do it whatever ideas you have whatever thing you're working on or you've been thinking about just start whatever step you find like that's the first step for you just start the steps become clearer as you move along so just start that's the most important step you'll ever take and when you start that's when the next steps are going to appear so just do it and do it in confidence you're going to make it nice thank you thank you just for making time for sharing insights on agriculture business it's not everyday that people get to have these discussions about what you're doing as a woman in that sector and you know embracing you know your womanhood your feminity and just being able to deliver thank you we appreciate you thank you for coming that was just feel a deity who is doing quite a lot in the agribusiness sector and you've had for yourself there's quite a lot and there's a wide range of market that farmers can tap into now that is what we had for you strength of a woman but don't touch that dial Val is coming back with more