Hydroponics Kenya pioneered hydroponic farming technology in Africa. It's a quality, cost- effective and sustainable way of farming which saves up to 80% of water used in crop production compared to conventional farming. We supported Hydroponics with a scaling strategy that led to 850,000 funding.
We provided customized business support to Hydroponics during a pilot to test vertical farming in Nairobi. Once the pilot was succesful we providedadvice on scaling strategy after which enabled Peter Chege, the founder, to secure additional funding: Hydroponics received funding of € 500.000 from USAID and 350.000 USD loan from a commercial investor to scale operations. Peter Chege, Founder & CEO of Hydroponics also shared his feedback:
“We received valuable support to develop and validate our business model. Based on a gap analysis to get ready to scale after a pilot for urban farming, we’ve been advised to investigate a credit/lease model to make the products more affordable. We developed all inclusive hydroponics services which in turn enabled us to secure a totaling amount of 850.000 USD. Hydroponics Africa could not have attained this milestone were it not for the valuable advice and encouragement of the team.”
Targeted food security and water efficiency results to scale up with the additional resources secured are:
• 2,223 small farmers will increase crop production by using hydroponic units;
• 16,000 people (mostly poor) will have access to an improved source of food;
• 663,640 liters of water will be saved the coming 3 years.
We congratulate Hydroponics Kenya on the results achieved thus far and looks forward to delivering further support in the upcoming stage to further design and implement the scaling strategy.
