In an era where many startups seem more interested in achieving media popularity with little or no success to substantiate it, the Founder of EZ-Farming, Adewale Oparinde, said winning the 2019 Georgetown University’s $5,000 New Venture Prize, is a testament to the value the agritech startup poses.
The company won the first prize of $5,000 and the people’s choice award at the 2019 Georgetown African Business conference New venture competition, hosted by the Young African Professionals in Washington DC.
Venture prize: The Georgetown African Business conference is a new venture competition hosted by the Young African Professionals in Washington DC. At the event, EZ-Farming was awarded the first prize of $5,000 and the people’s choice award.
Why EZ-Farming?: The company’s strategic agribusiness model has endeared EZ-Farming to farmers and other agric stakeholders. The agritech startup has scaled small farms into commercial sizes by exposing them to new investment opportunities. The company also offers insurance coverage for various packages in the agritech space.
According to Oparinde, the win is well deserved due to the effort of EZ-Farming in positioning farmers for growth:
“We are really delighted to have won the contest here in Washington DC. It is our first outing after several months of inventing our business model to meet the demands and dynamics of the market.
“We took our time since 2015 to conduct thorough research in designing our business model.”
For Oparinde, it’s not just about creating tools for business development, but also about the value such products add to the customers.
“It is one thing to design a website or an app with a proposition connecting farmers to sponsors; it is another thing to fully and technically understand the agricultural space. As you will notice on our website, our team members have vast experience in the space.
“It is important to us that we build a sustainable business that is most trusted by our investor community and which can last beyond the current era of hype.”
