Hello Tractor is a leading ag-tech social enterprise that connects tractor owners and smallholder farmers through a farm equipment sharing application. They install GPS monitoring devices onto compact tractors and collect location, tractor usage, and tractor health data to ensure assets are performing and farmers are receiving requested services.
Innovation
Pay-as-you-go tractor finance for increased agricultural productivity, job creation, and an attractive new asset class for women savings cooperatives (chamas).
Focused on growing agent networks to increase reach to smallholder farmers while simultaneously increasing the number of tractors available through supporting women credit cooperatives (Chamas) to: invest in owning tractors & deliver services to smallholder farmers, managed by Hello Tractor. Cost of tractors will be made affordable through a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) approach. This will also create jobs for youth not only serving as farmer demand aggregators (booking agents) but also as tractor contractors.
Initial pilot of 5-10 tractors in Kenya. Cost of tractors is 20% covered by Hello Tractor/partners and 80% by private investors.
Tractors being financed will come with a full book of pre-identified and pre-organized farmers paying for tractor services within the marketplace – providing employment of tractors across multiple regions and growing seasons, thereby maximizing tractor use. Requisite staff will be hired and trained as well.
A successful pilot will enable scaling this approach, with the support of equipment manufacturer and finance partners, thereby achieving an acceleration of getting more tractors available to smallholder farmers in Kenya.
Key Milestones under KCJF
3,000+ tractors and 1,220 booking agents installed on the platform. Captured 75% of all new tractors sold in Nigeria and scaled into 12 additional markets in less than 3 years.
Strategic partnerships with John Deere and IBM on large public and private sector projects as well as their Agwallet platform based on Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.
500K smallholder farmers’ lives touched by connected fleet.
Scaling into 12 countries across Africa & Asia, servicing 500k+ hectares of land.
Press from major outlets, including Inc. Magazine, Reuters, Forbes, BBC, The Economist.
About The Founder
Jehiel Oliver, CEO, leads the team, strategy, and
partnerships. He was an advisor to two sitting U.S.
presidents on business in Africa and has worked in
global governance and agriculture for over a
decade. He has worked as a financial sector
consultant, providing advisory services for
transactions totaling over a half billion dollars across
ten countries, including conflict zones. Jehiel began
his career in the U.S. investment banking and private
equity space and studied economics at Florida A&M
University and Cornell University.
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