SunCulture: Bringing Smart Technology to Smallholder Farmers |
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SunCulture was co-founded by Samir and Charles Nichols (Nichols), the CTO. Samir was an alumnus of NYU Stern with a background in Finance. He had worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers before leaving to start SunCulture. Nichols was a mechanical engineer and had worked for a company developing solar-energy projects before founding SunCulture...
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| SunCulture combined the solar powered pump with the micro irrigation facility to come up with the AgroSolar Irrigation Kit. The Kit’s pump could draw water from a water source. The water would then be stored in an overhead water tank and gravity would be used to release it for irrigation using the drip technique, which saved 80% of water. The pump had a high-efficiency maximum power point tracking controller that adjusted the current/voltage of the solar panel to ensure maximum output.. |
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| The managing risk turned out to be a big part of SunCulture’s learning curve. It was evident to the founders that doing business in Africa was a lot different from doing business in the US and brought with it unique risks and challenges. Some of the bizarre risks included loss of inventory in ports to being caught in rural violence. Commenting on the risks and the learning, Samir said, .. |
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| SunCulture leveraged on technology to unlock end-user financing using the PAYG model. This strategy of refinancing was important to the success of the new product as well as in moving farmers up the agricultural productivity ladder as it offered loans for additional farm equipment like drip irrigation when customers built a positive repayment history.... |
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| SunCulture worked on improving the smallholder farmer’s life in an environmentally sustainable way. The company worked on the triple bottom line, improving economic, social, and environmental conditions. It sought to improve crop yields, productivity, and farmer incomes while eliminating considerable amounts of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. The company won numerous awards for its efforts ... |
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| SunCulture needed to grow rapidly if it was to achieve its objective of reaching millions of farmers who needed the AgroSolar kit. Such rapid growth was possible only if funding was in place. East Africa was seeing several funds and donors putting billions of dollars into sustainable models and Samir said Nairobi was the hub of this activity .. |
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| SunCulture had a very important dilemma – whether to change the business model to suit the fund manager and get large funds by allowing the fund manager to drive the business model without their knowing the ground reality or build the business model by leveraging on local knowledge, experiences, and technology and collaborating with partners. The company chose the latter... |
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| SunCulture had started with the objective of increasing the productivity of the small farmer by providing them with the AgroSolar kit that would pump water from a water body to a tank and use gravity along with drip or sprinklers to transport it to the plant. It later worked with its customers and partners to develop a host of offerings which would better the lives of the farmers’ households by providing lighting and mobile charging. It also provided value-added services centered on the kit using the revolutionary RainMaker2 with ClimateSmart, which used smart technology to optimize the use of resources.. |
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Exhibit I: How SunCulture Kit Works
Exhibit II: Detail of SunCulture’s Three Products
Exhibit III: SunCulture’s Business Model
Exhibit IV: Competitors of SunCulture
Exhibit V: Commercial Process at SunCulture
Exhibit VI: List of Awards Received by SunCulture
Exhibit VII: SunCulture’s Impact over the years
Exhibit VIII: Details about RainMaker2 with ClimateSmart
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