PIC CAPTION: Dr. Chris Silali, founder and CEO at GenePlus Global Limited has set his eyes on scaling up his startup's last-mile animal health delivery services to the rest of East Africa. Image: Supplied / GenePlus Global Limited
GenePlus Global Limited, a Kenyan agricultural biotechnology startup is revolutionizing Africa’s livestock farming through modern and advanced agricultural solutions aimed at enhancing on-farm best practices and supporting sustainable agricultural production across the board. This innovative startup won the AfricArena Best Agri Tech Startup Award at the AfricArena Nairobi Summit that took place in Nairobi, Kenya in September this year. AfricArena’s Jabulile Sonya Ngwenya caught up with Dr. Chris Silali, GenePlus Global Limited founder and CEO to find out more about what makes his startup successful with Africa’s fast growing agricultural biotechnology landscape.
Innovative digital technology solutions are helping rural smallholder farmers in Africa fight poverty and earn a sustainable living. GenePlus Global Limited, with their innovative agricultural biotechnology solutions are focused on making a difference in Africa’s agricultural landscape. “We are passionate about what we do because we are contributing to solving some critical root causes of poverty in rural Africa and the communities find value in what we do,” Dr Silali tells AfricArena.
Describing what his startup product solution is, Dr Silali says, “GenePlus Global Limited has developed a last-mile animal health delivery system, Easy Breed, which provides accessible, affordable, and comprehensive breeding and extension services to marginalized smallholder farmers.”
He adds that through this service delivery channel, GenePlus addresses the challenge of cold-chain infrastructure by establishing a complete end-to-end cold chain support system in all areas covered by the last mile program.
Through this last-mile animal health delivery system, Dr Silali notes that “the cost of breeding service is also reduced by an average of 40% and accessibility of services is addressed by establishing fully equipped local cluster centres in high-potential regions. In addition, farmer awareness is improved by aligning training and extension services with the last mile service delivery. The last mile innovation uses a simple tech-driven mobile USSD platform that allows smallholder farmers to easily access reliable and quality genetics across the country.”
The inspiration for building GenePlus in the first place, he says, started when he observed that there was a gap between farmers’ best practices and digital technology adoption. “By recognizing the untapped potential in the realm of smallholder livestock farming, my entrepreneurial journey began with a keen observation of a conspicuous gap in technology adoption. Small-scale farmers, despite being the backbone of our agricultural landscape, were often underserved in terms of technological solutions. Witnessing this void, we envisioned a venture committed to bridging this gap. Our mission is to empower these farmers by introducing tailored technologies, fostering efficiency, and contributing to the sustainable growth of the agriculture sector. Through innovation and dedication, we aim to catalyze positive transformations for both farmers and the broader agricultural landscape.”
Running a startup during the 2020 covid pandemic and afterwards was not easy, he says. “It was very difficult due to market access challenges as a result of restricted movements.” Fortunately, Dr Silali and his team did not give up and their perseverance has seen them win acknowledgement and awards for the work they do.
The funding winter, he says, added another layer of challenges as it was not easy to secure funding, and as a self-preservation mechanism, our response was that “we widened our fundraising pool by networking with potential investors in different pools.”
Reflecting on his startup journey to date, Dr Silali recalls the defining moment that indicated there was a need for what GenePlus offered within the market. It came “when we started getting traction and return customers, customer testimonials and building trust. That, he says, was the turning point for our startup.
Proud of his startup’s success, Dr Silali tells AfricArena that their most recent business success is that “GenePlus has administered more than 220,000 artificial insemination doses resulting in an annual increase in household revenues by $480. This has led to an eventual increase of farmer household income to $840 impacting approximately 1.3 million livelihoods. We also attained a $1 million in revenue in 2023.”
Thrilled about winning the Best Agri Tech Startup Award at the AfricArena Nairobi Summit, Dr Silali says “winning the AfricArena Startup award cemented our belief in our solution and the resolve to scale.”
What makes GenePlus’ success even more impressive is that Dr Silali started it with an initial $18,000 capital investment. To date, the largest amount of funds they have raised is $500,000 which was deployed toward working capital, equipment, infrastructure development, product development and marketing.
Dr Silali, whose normal day-to-day schedule sees him busy with business operational support, strategic modelling, reviews and ensuring his supporting teams excel, says GenePlus is focused on raising $2 million from this year to ensure ongoing operational success.
He shares with AfricArena that the biggest challenges that his team has faced so far are, “developing the right culture and getting the right skillset.” As a result of these challenges, Dr Silali says he has ensured that his teams are taken through different trainings and they outsourced recruitment. Building a startup within the agritech sector, he acknowledges, is never easy, however, it is not a road meant to be walked alone. He shares that the best advice a mentor gave him was to “never walk alone, and bounce off ideas to your peers.” It is clear that Dr Silali has taken the wise words of his mentor to heart, as he sets his eyes on scaling up GenePlus’ last-mile services across East Africa.
In sharing his mentor’s wise words, which echoes the African proverb, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together’, Dr Silali is imparting wisdom to a new generation of agritech entrepreneurs keen on building innovative agritech startups to drive Africa’s technological growth within the global agricultural biotechnology industry, which in 2024 reached over $126.21 billion and is expected to reach a market value of over $293 billion by 2034. “There is a huge opportunity in agriculture but the landscape is rugged, it therefore requires resilience and long term planning.”
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