Request for livestock-tech (and allied) startups

We have a duty to ensure the least of us does not go hungry.

Aug 14, 2024

Fast Forward Venture Studios has partnered with GIZ’s Scaling digital agriculture innovations through start-ups (SAIS) to incubate and validate commercial sustainable livestock tech ventures in the earliest days. This is as opposed to grants toward unsustainable ventures in the livestock and allied industries. Our definition of livestock is broad and includes the whole value chain from inputs, feeding, storage, genetics, breeding, vaccines, aquaculture, blue economy, governance, finance, etc.

We will work with you to validate your opportunity to achieve solid unit economics and at least $20k MRR or a similar milestone and invest up to $100k cash in each company in exchange for equity in your startup. We will work with up to 10 startups initially and intend to invest up to $100k cash in at least three companies that hit those milestones after six months. In addition, we will introduce these startups to other investors; local, regional, and global customers as relevant through the GIZ and Fast Forward networks.

Why Livestock? Livestock has a higher impact on GDP than other parts of agriculture like crops. Production cycles are generally faster. Lower funding but a higher impact on GDP and yet there are limited startups currently focusing on the sector.

Thesis

Investment Areas for Fast Forward (for Thesis Building)

Building Blocks

We believe in making what customers want.
We want to fund profitable ventures that can scale even further when infused with money or tech. A venture may not be profitable today but can demonstrate by its unit economics how it will be profitable in the near future.
Homegrown innovation and R&D are seldom profitable initially, we want to back such wild bets at the prototype stage.
$$ revenues is an added advantage.

Ideas we like today

Core R&D, engineering that reduces the cost of anything by a factor of 3 minimum with little trade-off in efficiency.

We would love to back innovators building machines and tools that improve the work of farmers visibly by at least a factor of three with little to no trade-off in efficiency. People have tried in the past and have given up for lack of money to take to market. The question we always ask is, is it useful to the farmers - a simple litmus test is to let them try it for free and monitor the utility. If it is used, then it can be paid for and we are ready to back you. Koolboks makes affordable fit-for-market commercial freezers and is used by small and large businesses today. We’d love to see indigenous fodder and feed manufacturers or mixes who can make equally effective feed at a fraction of the cost.

Open drug, vaccine database - local subs, DIY alternatives, non-patent infringing solutions that also work

The vaccines we use today are prepared mostly for non-African climates. From time to time, someone comes up with a solution that works for Africa, but such a solution does not see the light of day due to lack of funding and awareness. We want to work with such innovators to explore varied business models from IP licensing, open sourcing, R&D to sell to larger firms, and government backing to roll out fit-for-purpose opportunities.

Efficient Manufacturing or Processing solutions

Manufacturing and processing are expensive - know-how, tools, and talent. We are looking for business models that make manufacturing easier than ever before. From clustering tools to equipment share, processing for revenue share, and solutions that leverage economies of scale and scope. Millers and abattoirs with a unique scalable business model like mobile slaughterhouses and meat processing units that benefit multiple rearers and have a modern frontend for selling the meat in a sustainable, profitable, and hygienic manner. A tomato processing plant (portable or in a cluster) can get tomatoes into a state where less spoilage will be experienced.

Sharing Economy in Agriculture

Sharing economy can help more people access the know-how and tech they need to do livestock better. Multi-tenant solutions with innovative business models can improve access while being super profitable.

Free and Open Source Software

Sometimes, the way to get your solution in the hands of many people is to make it free for farmers and build an innovative business model around it. Innovative business models around free software can be premium plans, enterprise consulting for large consultations, advertising, and the sale of data [FarmOS, Open Weed Allocator]. Open Solar is a free solar project management tool for solar installers, and it makes money by charging “partners”, solar equipment providers, and lenders who want to be integrated into the system, and they pay a commission to Open Solar. The solution is so great, it sells itself. Open Solar has raised $25m so far. We would love to see this kind of model in livestock agriculture in Africa.

Fintechization of Agric

Money moves the world, and farmers too. We look for innovative fintech solutions that can demonstrate value to stakeholders in the livestock sector. We expect to see well-thought-out interventions - for example, do not just build a wallet and say wallet for farmers. We expect to understand why farmers and why they would use it. Or should it be for off-takers, who want to stream wages based on IOT and telemetry data?

Existing profitable ventures seeking digital transformation.

Not all great founders are out there seeking VC funding. Some of the biggest companies globally and locally were bootstrapped. Even though that’s changing quickly, the best founders may not be knowledgeable about VC. If you are leading a fledgling business in the livestock value chain and want to explore digital transformation initiatives as a spinoff or evolution of a current business, please feel free to apply.

Core Infrastructure Services useful for livestock but with a larger scope

Some services can improve livestock capabilities but are not necessarily tied to livestock only - cold storage, communication (Whatsapp), connectivity (Starlink), and IOT come to mind. We welcome solutions like this and are happy to fund them.

Areas we avoid

Direct Farm investments

We do not invest directly in farms. Rather we prefer to invest in ventures and solutions that scale and can serve hundreds of farms. If you own a farm and have also developed an idea/solution that has productivity and yield for your farm, we would love to talk to you. Pitch the solution and use your farm as an example of how it’s been tested and proven. We’d love to help you scale your solution across farms. Don’t pitch both.

Crowdfunding for crops

Simply put, crowdfunding is a slippery road to running Ponzi schemes. It takes good governance and baked-in protocols to not yield to the temptation of running a Ponzi scheme. That said, this is how new models start first, the fake ones, then the true ones. If you have a sustainable crowdfunding model that’s transparent by design with no exaggerated promise to customers, we are happy to look at it.

Unsustainable models

Solutions that serve farmers who cannot afford to pay or do not want to pay: We are only keen on backing opportunities that can scale. If your solution can’t scale or is overly dependent on grants and governments with no way of weaning off over time, we implore you to spend time evolving the business model before you apply.

Jack-off-all trade type of startups.

Amazon started with one simple idea: books. Google - a search engine. We know the future is going to be massive, but we want to really understand that first problem you want to solve and focus on solving it knowing you will do more in the future.

Hyping the tech over the value

We naturally expect lots of founders to use AI or blockchain in their solutions, but we expect that the use of such tech is not redundant. If you are using AI, it should be clear how the use of AI adds value. If you are using blockchain, it should be clear how the service benefits from blockchain and would be suboptimal (product, process, funding, ownership) if not done with blockchain.

Solutions that work but are not practical for Africa

A good example is developing virtual fencing solutions for cattle grazing management when the real problem here is not the ability to contain cattle but the need to find free/cheap fodder. This is what is at the heart of the cattle-rearing crisis in Nigeria - if herdsmen can get cheaper food/fodder staying in one place, they wouldn't move around. Another example is providing super expensive IOT that’s more expensive than the flock (make sure your unit economics and payback period calculations are in order).

As always, there are exceptions.

FAQ

How much are you investing from Day One?
- We won’t write you a cheque on day one. However, we have a $10,000 discretionary budget to help you pay for key things that are critical to validating your innovation.
Do I need a co-founder?
- Not necessarily. We realize what will work in Agriculture might be different from typical tech startups.
What other kind of support will you provide?
- App development (if needed), Growth Marketing, PR, strategy and operations support
What is your definition of tech?
- App != tech. An innovation in a feeding process if scalable is tech. Please do not waste money building unneeded mobile app to posture to us. It reflects poorly on you and we are savvy enough to be objective about which kind of tech is valuable and which is not.