Kenyan agri-tech startup Lentera, which develops climate smart solutions for African farmers, has expanded to Mauritius after partnering with the Mauritius Chemical and Fertiliser Industry (MCFI), a fertiliser manufacturer.
Founded in 2017, Lentera offers precision agriculture services, including farm software, weather sensors, drone and satellite imaging, as well as automated advisory services on market conditions.
The startup, which late last year signed a working capital finance facility with the Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC) to enable it to provide climate smart agriculture solutions to more farmers while it seeks equity investment, has now partnered with MCFI in a deal that will see it provide satellite-based crop health analysis and crop modelling services for MCFI’s Mauritian customers.
These farmers will get access to weekly crop health satellite images, soil moisture analysis and an on-demand hyper-localised weather forecast service that will be delivered via a mobile application. The collaboration will start with sugar cane and cereals growers in Mauritius before scaling up to more customers in Eastern and Southern Africa.
“This is a great milestone for us. As a pan-African company, it is an honour for us to serve Mauritian farmers working with MCFI and we look forward to expanding the partnership to other African countries,” said Moses Kimani, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lentera.
“This is an exciting collaboration for us. We believe in working with upcoming and talented African enterprises like Lentera Africa to transform agriculture in our home country and in Africa and deliver real value to farmers through satellite and mobile technology,” said Dheer Roy, business development manager at MCFI, which has been a market leader in the manufacture and distribution of high quality, affordable fertiliser to farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa since 1975.
