How SunCulture Built a Pioneering Solar Power Business in Kenya
At the Beginning and Now
Imagine you are living in a long forgotten time, where you use a waterwheel to transport water from a river to irrigate your fields. You found out about this thing called solar power which converts sunlight into electricity. You would think that is cool I will use it to power my waterwheel with a motor. This turns out to be a bit bulky and inefficient. A better, smaller in size and more cost effective way is to use a solar panel and pump to achieve your objective. SunCulture, a company out of Kenya has set out to do just that and opened up a new market to cater for the irrigation needs of local farmers.
Currently, there are 4 solar irrigation pump products on offer. One of them even bundled with a television. These include solar panel, controller, submersible pump and the cables and pipes needed to irrigate 1 to 2 acres of farm land. The ClimateSmart Direct is currently priced at 64,999 Ksh at once or in monthly instalments.
Their products even got first place in the Global Leap Awards 2019. What a great achievement.
SunCulture aims to provide products and services in the fields of technology hardware and software, value added services and financing to farmers in Kenya.
Genesis
The company was founded in 2012 by Samir Ibrahim CEO, and Charles Nichols CTO after they entered a university competition where they got second place. The idea they pitched was combining solar power with irrigation. The total addressable market TAM in the world is 570 million small farmers making 600 € to 1000 € a year. These farmers have no disposable income, unpredictable and unreliable crop harvesting due reliance on rain to irrigate their farms as well as no access to capital markets or insurance. Was it possible to create a dependable and reliable income for these farmers.
In a pilot they looked at wether the technology works, does it make sense for a for profit business, and can farmers make an income out of using this technology. When the answer was yes to all of these points they decided to go ahead and mare this vision a reality.
SunCulture began building a wonderful and meaningful business that no one else was doing, lifting an entire group of people out of poverty, creating a new consumer market and sell to farmers around Kenya.
Invest, Make Money and Make an Impact
Build something people want which creates value in their life then people will pay for it. If what they build does not help their customers, they will not buy it and if they do not buy it, there is no business. Put farmers in the middle, solve problems for farmers, create products and services for them, and they will pay for it. This is the guiding principle of SunCulture where they put the customer first.
There are organisations whose mission is to support companies financially in their early days and subsequent phases of development. The private sector plays an important role in the economic development of the society. It is important to find the right financial backing and the right financial product in order to be able to start, build and grow a business. Different types of capital are needed for different parts of the business at different times of the development of the business. External capital instruments are grant capital, equity and debt. Grant capital was used at the beginning to operate the business. Now grants are used for very specific pilots where they are the first mover. Equity is utilised to grow and operate the business. Equity was at the beginning from angel investors with operating experience it evolved to venture capital institutional experience to professionalize the business and how to think of operation of scale. Now they raise debt to cover the period of time from ordering the inventory before being paid back.
The market for SunCulture is around 2 million farmers in Kenya who can afford their irrigation products. Relevance and quality before affordability is key to the way products are developed for the farmers of Kenya. Relevance means the pump has to work for where the water is at the depth of 20 to 50 meters. The technical product has to be of great quality. Nevertheless, the affordability of the product can be made possible through the financing solutions introduced to the market.
Focus groups with farmers
The company organises a number of focus groups over the course of a year to find out solutions which would be helpful for farmers after they have built a sustainable income from farming using the SunCulture irrigation products.
They are looking into or offering the following products
- pressure cookers to cook cleanly
- TVs bundled with agricultural content.
- Egg incubators
This helps in finding what is interesting and gives a value add for farmers, what they would be investing in and how much money they would make with it.
The idea is to understand what the customers will need over the span of 20 years and what can be done to improve their well being.
Supply Side of the Business
SunCulture has very good relationships with suppliers and manufacturers. Some parts are sourced off the shelf, then there are products which are done in house. Quality assurance and quality control are very important to the company. Do own assembly and does the installation at the farms.
Sales Side of the Business
Sales and Service Centers SSCs are an important part of the business. They are used as point of sales, stockpiling of spare parts and for branding purposes.
The sales organisation is large and constitutes over 100 sales agents, who are here to serve their farmers. On average there is a need of 4 to 6 touch points till a sale is converted. Marketing channels are online, facebook, call center and SSCs.
Key Takeaways
In order to succeed it is important to put the customer first. Guiding you to identify the problems customers face. The solutions are envisaged. This evolves into creating the right products. Ideas are generated on how to make the life of the customers great. The organisation is built around the services and processes to fulfil the goals.
Contact
for more information about SunCulture go to their
website: https://sunculture.com/
Facebook: SunCulture Kenya
Contact via phone: +254 700 327 002 or +254 711 082 066
or via email: sales@sunculture.com
Their main office is in Nairobi with offices in different cities across the country.
Logo, trade names and products belong to their respective owners.
Grow-As-You-Build
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