Birrama Digital Commerce – Farm Africa

Investing in Impact

P4G has provided the partnership with about US $300,000 in grant funding. 

The agriculture sector is a major economic contributor in Ethiopia and smallholder farmers account for 85% of all employment in the country. The sector relies heavily on rainfall and is especially vulnerable to climate change. There is a critical need for accurate and localized weather and agriculture decision-making services to help farmers become more resilient to changing climate and rainfall patterns. 

Birrama Digital Commerce is an Ethiopian startup that has developed IRIF, an AI-powered platform that provides farmers with data, analysis and personalized recommendations on weather forecasts, crop health, pest outbreaks and irrigations schedules. 

IRIF also directly connects farmers to buyers through a digital marketplace. The local language supported platform allows them to negotiate directly with buyers to get fair prices for their products and expands their market access by sharing connections with a range of buyers from wholesalers to exporters. The platform partners with microfinance institutions to provide farmers access to loans and micro-insurance. 

To make IRIF affordable to farmers, Birrama Digital offers a “pay-on-harvest” subscription model where farmers only pay after their harvest and only if they experience a quantifiable income or yield increase attributable to IRIF. 

The startup is currently focusing on Oromia, Afar and Central Ethiopia before rolling out the platform to other countries in East Africa and finally scaling up across the continent. 

As the lead administrative partner, Farm Africa will help the startup engage with local government authorities in the focus regions; provide monitoring and evaluation support to help measure the startup’s impact; and develop knowledge products to share learnings. 

The P4G grant will be a critical catalyst for the startup’s next stage of growth, enabling it to raise US $1.6 million in commercial investment. This growth will directly fuel the creation of 18 new, high-skilled jobs in Ethiopia in fields like data science, agronomy and software development. 

These roles will support the creation of additional income-generating opportunities within the agricultural value chain, from improved farm productivity to enhanced market linkage. This strategy is projected to increase the startups revenue by 180%. 

The partnership comprises the following partners: Birrama Digital (lead business partner); Farm Africa (lead administrative partner); Grofit (technical expert).