Dominique Kavuisya, CEO of Taimba, saw an issue with East Africa’s agricultural supply chain. While industrial-scale farmers had easy access to market and formal logistics, many smaller-scale rural farmers struggled with inconsistency in pricing and demand. The result was unstable and low incomes and wasted food. Given that smallholders make up the majority of the region’s agricultural output, the inefficiency was impacting both the market and the many communities involved in the supply chain. 

Taimba is Dominique’s solution. The startup provides farmers with a digital platform that links them to traders and facilitates consistent pricing. It’s a double-impact business – in addition to giving farmers an accessible way to sell their products at a fair price, it also reduces food waste and shortens the supply chain. Taimba helps ensure that a harvest doesn’t go to waste and has increased farmer income by as much as 15 percent. The organization also facilitates the formation of cooperatives, which can reduce individual operational costs for producers, standardize pricing and enable better communication with buyers. Taimba aims to provide a transparent, streamlined supply chain for agriculture in East Africa.

Taimba received a $10,000 prize at the 2018 Food+City Challenge at SXSW. It also received $100,000 from Gray Matters Capital’s GMC coLabs fund and €250,000 in project funding and support from Enviu and the DOEN Foundation.