Kenya - Business creation project

Describe your project or startup in a few words

Keges Urban Agriventure provides city residents with innovative, sustainable urban farming solutions, including modular kits, smart irrigation, data analytics, and expert guidance, enabling them to grow fresh vegetables in confined spaces.

01.01 Describe your project in more detail

Keges Urban Agriventure offers a comprehensive urban farming solution for city residents. We provide modular kits designed for confined spaces, which include smart irrigation systems, data analytics, and eco-friendly materials. Our companion mobile app offers expert guidance, tracking, and data analytics to optimize yield and ensure sustainability. The aim is to empower urban dwellers to grow their own fresh vegetables, reduce their carbon footprint, and promote a healthier lifestyle.

01.02 What is the main problem you are trying to solve?

Urban residents face challenges in accessing fresh, homegrown vegetables due to limited space and lack of knowledge on sustainable farming practices. This leads to dependency on store-bought produce, which is often less fresh and environmentally taxing. Keges Urban Agriventure addresses these issues by providing a turnkey solution that makes urban farming accessible, efficient, and eco-friendly, enabling residents to grow their own vegetables even in confined spaces.

01.03 Tell us the major benefits and/or advantages of using the product/service that your project intends to provide (at least 3).

Space Efficiency: Our modular kits are designed to fit into small, urban spaces, making it possible for city dwellers to grow their own vegetables at home. Sustainability: Using eco-friendly materials and smart irrigation systems, our solution minimizes water usage and environmental impact. Expert Guidance: Our companion mobile app provides users with data analytics, tracking, and expert advice, ensuring optimal growth and yield. Real-time analytics:customers using our product will be able to track real-time and regulate crop conditions example temperature, light and water

01.04 Please describe who exactly your project is aimed at serving. Who are the targeted beneficiaries?

Our project targets urban residents who want to grow their own fresh vegetables but lack the space and knowledge to do so. This includes apartment dwellers, people with small balconies or rooftops, and eco-conscious individuals looking to reduce their carbon footprint. Additionally, we aim to serve communities interested in sustainable living and local food production, contributing to urban sustainability and food security.

01.05 When did you start working on your project?

2024-01-01

01.06 How many other partners are associated with your business venture?

1

01.07 Among the other partners, how many are female?

1

01.08 Please describe the profile of each of the other partners (skills, experience, etc.)

Diana Karan - Co-Founder and Sustainability Lead Diana Karan, co-founder of keges Urban Agriventure, holds a degree in Marine Biology and Fisheries and a master's in Fisheries. Currently a researcher, Diana has a strong background in ecological research, data analysis, and environmental management. Her expertise in sustainability and resource management is crucial for developing eco-friendly urban farming solutions. Diana's unique perspective on optimizing growing conditions in confined urban spaces and her commitment to promoting green practices align perfectly with keges's mission. Her role ensures our products are effective, sustainable and beneficial for urban farmers.

01.09 If you have a website, a social media page (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin…), or app, please provide the link here:

01.10 Which industry best describes your project?

l) Agriculture

02.01.01 My project contributes to the No poverty goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.01.02 No poverty - Justification

My project aims to target youth who are most affected with employment, we target to create job opportunities in various sectors that would directly help in offering them an opportunity to find a way to earn a living effectively help their household directly fighting and alleviating the burden of poverty the arears we aim to create majority of jobs are in the manufacturing of our bio degrable and eco friendly farming kits,installation and delivery as well as training and consultancy this are the jobs we feel would greatly be filled by youth and directly help them earn a living effectively combating poverty.

02.02.01 My project contributes to the Zero hunger goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.02.02 Zero hunger - Justification

Our project helps urban dwellers directly grow their own produce effectively eliminating the middleman and on the other hand guaranteeing that our clients save money,by growing their own food hunger is effectively eliminated especially with hard economic times most household go hungry by with this initiative hunger is eliminated as food will always be guaranteed and extra surplus can be exchanged for different foodstuff in our client community with growers looking to barter their produce with different variety.

02.03.01 My project contributes to the Good health and well-being goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.03.02 Good health and well-being - Justification

The biggest problem with buying food in cities is ethics as most vendors follow unhealthy practices when preparing and growing the ffoodstuff, we envision a healthier approach to growing food where the consumer is directly in charge of the food they grow and consume, from knowing exactly what the crops are fed Interms of nutrients to knowing the conditions that they are grown under with our smart app, directly playing an influence in ensuring healthy practices and fostering wellbeing with good health.

02.04.01 My project contributes to the Quality education goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.04.02 Quality education - Justification

With our main approach being creating awareness to healthy plant growth practices we aim to provide quality education and training on this equipping our clients with the best possible teaching skills and information to ensure that their journey to self grow their own produce is successful and sustainable,

02.05.01 My project contributes to the Gender equality goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.05.02 Gender equality - Justification

We are targeting equality in our organization,from the topmost position in our company being held by our co-founder Diana who is a lady,and her vision and goal is to ensure that we reach a percentage of 60% in our female staff which would greatly improve our gender equality goals and ensure that women are integrated in every critical sector of our organization from manufacturing to leadership.

02.06.01 My project contributes to the Clean water and sanitation goal

6

02.06.02 Clean water and sanitation - Justification

Through our design vertical aquaponic towers, we have taken steps to ensure that all and every drop of water is utilized with surplus being rotated across the platform thereby saving water ensuring sanitation of the highest order with our portable and adjustable system effectively saving wastage of water and ensuring that the amount being utilized is clean and hygienic.

02.07.01 My project contributes to the Affordable and clean energy goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.07.02 Affordable and clean energy - Justification

With our vertical aquaponic towers trying to minimize space but still guaranteeing the maximum yield of fresh produce, we effectively limit the wastage of energy and saving on space ensuring it is not only affordable but also beneficial to the client.

02.08.01 My project contributes to the Decent work and economic growth

7 - Strongly Agree

02.08.02 Decent work and economic growth - Justification

Our startup is targeting to create more than 1600 jobs that will directly go to helping jobless youth find purpose and also a chance to economically help themselves better their conditions from going to school to establishing themselves, some of the roles we are targeting to create most opportunities on are in manufacturing of our vertical aquaponic tower systems and plant substrates and seedling,and in trainings of our clients.

02.09.01 My project contributes to the Industry innovation and infrastructure

6

02.09.02 Industry innovation and infrastructure - Justification

We are hoping to revolutionize the agriculture space by bringing the skills and expertise for urban dwellers to grow their own fresh produce, we are target to revolutionize the sector by our introduction of the smart app to both track the process and enable our clients control and regulate the process example light and water and nutrient dispersal, our material are bio degrable and eco friendly a first in the industry and guarantee to ensure that the experience is taken well.

02.10.01 My project contributes to the Reduced inequalities goal

5

02.10.02 Reduced inequalities - Justification

Our vision is to go global targeting every city with an end goal of creating a close knit community, that will not only be engaging sharing best practices and exchanging ideas effectively bridging the gap of separation between people and boundaries which would serve to reduce inequality in most.

02.11.01 My project contributes to the Sustainable cities and communities goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.11.02 Sustainable cities and communities - Justification

Our startup main goal is sustainability in cities we hope to tackle this by reducing organic waste creating and promoting a sustainable and eco friendly practice to growing produce ensuring minimal loss and waste from water to waste while ensuring maximum yield per harvest.

02.12.01 My project contributes to the Responsible consumption and production goal

6

02.12.02 Responsible consumption and production - Justification

Our venture encourages responsible consumption and production by reducing the need of large scale farming that often huge percentages end up being spoilt or perishing before reaching the consumer, we aim to tackle this by our innovative venture of having different packages based on different needs of our clients,this on one hand eliminates wastage saves resources and encourages responsible production and consumption by one growing what they need and can consume,with the option of sharing or exchanging the surplus to other members in the platform group.

02.13.01 My project contributes to the Climate action goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.13.02 Climate action - Justification

Our goal as a startup is try and reduce carbon footprints in household contributing to the overall climate action plan by ensuring that building and residents adopt our services they will also be committing to growing plants alongside our towers that will be going a step further in helping recycle air pollution in cities and building helping create sustainability and promote clean air.

02.14.01 My project contributes to the Life below water goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.14.02 Life below water - Justification

Currently our project does not directly or indirectly touch on or impact life under water but we envision in the future adopting a section that directly integrates farming and growing fish sustainably and in a way that recycles both products from our vertical farms to the fish example recycling the water for plants to use the fish droppings in it as fertilizer

02.15.01 My project contributes to the Life on land goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.15.02 Life on land - Justification

By encouraging indoor vertical farms our project is playing a huge role in reducing competition for space drastically reducing the need for clearing large scale tracts of land mostly forested and inhabited by animals which is often not productive as the yield is often unpredictable and resources wasted or used in excess rather than adopting our approach which guarantees stable yields and ensures minimum resource utilization.

02.16.01 My project contributes to the Peace justice and strong institutions goal

3

02.16.02 Peace justice and strong institutions - Justification

Our project doesn't directly touch on social reforms like peace and justice or strong institutions, but we believe that access to food is usually directly a factor in establishing peace and justice we believe that the more we help household better be able to grow and access food they grow themselves most conflicts are reduced we however hope to play a part in the future to ensure strong institutions especially agricultural.

02.17.01 My project contributes to the Partnerships for the goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.17.02 Partnerships for the goal - Justification

To achieve the most impact we believe strategic partnerships are crucial to increase reach and influence some of the steps we are currently taking are engaging with agricultural stakeholders and government to see ways we would better be able to properly provide value and increase outreach and awareness with projects that would guarantee better practices in food production and consumption.

05.01 There are a large number of customers who already use a product/service very similar to the product/service we envision creating.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.02 The product/service we envision creating represents an entirely new type of product/service.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.03 The product/service we envision creating could be described as a new technology.

4

05.04 The product/service we envision creating is an improvement on an existing product or service.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.05 The product/service we envision creating could be described as an extension of a range of products or services.

6

05.06 The product/service we envision creating responds to a demand or need that has not been satisfied by other products/services.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.07 The product/service we envision creating is a new version of an old product/service.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.08 Justification

Our product is unique in that we are more centred on sustainability evidenced in our approach in using bio degrable and eco friendly materials for our kits, what sets us apart is our mobile app that offers real time analytic tracking this includes light intensity control as well as water regulation, finally our expertise consulting services that offer our clients the best education resources,material and services to ensure firm grasp effectively ensuring the best possible chance of successful returns on their investment.

05.09 Who are your main potential competitors and what makes you stand out from them?

keges competitors in urban farming include Urban Cultivator, AeroGarden, and SproutsIO. However, we stands out with our modular design, smart irrigation system, and sustainable materials, as well as providing our customers with a comprehensive mobile app for monitoring and guidance, along with consulting services and community engagement. we aim to offer a superior customer experience and empower urban dwellers to grow fresh produce sustainably in confined spaces.

10.06 Are you initiating actions within your community to promote the role of female entrepreneurs?

Yes, Keges Urban Agriventure is committed to promoting female entrepreneurship within our community, we have initiated several actions to support and inspire women: 1. Mentorship Programs: Pairing aspiring female entrepreneurs with experienced women leaders for guidance and support. 2. Workshops and Training: Hosting sessions on urban farming, business management, and digital marketing to empower women with essential skills. 3. Networking Events: Organizing events to connect female entrepreneurs with industry experts and potential investors. 4. Partnerships: Collaborating with women's organizations to provide additional resources and funding opportunities. 5. Highlighting Success Stories: Celebrating female achievements through our marketing channels to inspire others. These initiatives aim to create an inclusive environment where women can thrive and lead in urban agriculture.