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  • Loan Did Not Meet Target Subscription Amount

Pay Later: Smartphone Financing for Smallholder Farmers in Kenya

Hagush

  • Kenya

This loan failed to reach its funding target of

  • 5,000 USD

The loan will finance smartphones for smallholder farmers in Kenya, which will enable them to get access to the FarmIT app, a technology that provides real-time agricultural insights for farmers to help them make optimal decisions at critical stages of the crop production cycle, resulting in increased agricultural yield and reduced fertiliser needs.

  • 1 Lenders

Committed

  • 17 months

Loan Period

  • 10%

Interest Rate

  • BACKGROUND
Borrower

Hagush

  • New York, United States
Loan summary

The mission of Hagush is to make digital technology access universal. Around 60% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa does not use mobile internet despite living in an area with coverage, and a major barrier is smartphone affordability (GSMA, 2022). Hagush is addressing this issue with an innovative business model that combines asset financing and supply chain optimization to make smartphones more affordable. This particular loan will help Hagush deliver on its mission by enabling more smallholder farmers in Kenya to gain access to a mobile application which can improve their yield and reduce their costs.

Borrower's mission

Hagush has relied on donation dollars and crowd-lent capital (from individual lenders) to support the pilot program and its work to date. Hagush plans to diversify revenue. Currently, crowdlending makes up the main source of revenue. Hagush also charges beneficiaries a service fee which goes on to cover the operational cost. 


Over the long term, Hagush plans to charge technology manufacturers a service fee (a flat fee per transaction when beneficiaries purchase smartphones with Hagush’s financing service plus a percentage of the total purchase made). Hagush is also planning to charge technology startups that will use its services to increase their customer base.

The activities funded by this loan are helping to achieve the above Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the UN.

This loan is listed by Impact Intermediary

Red Hat Impact​

  • Australia
Intermediary's experience with impact enterprises
For more than 8 years, Red Hat Impact has helped impact enterprises by raising capital and providing other kinds of business and strategy support. We have raised more than $3M from our network of impact investors, and loaned this capital to support 30 enterprises. We use a crowd-lending model to raise loan capital. As of May 2024, we maintain a 98% success rate on loan repayment. We establish close working relationships with all of the impact enterprises we raise debt capital for, and co-manage risks with them during the loan term.
  • IMPACT
Impacts and how they are measured

Hagush has launched the financing program in collaboration with FarmIT, an agri-tech startup that leverages earth observation tools to generate agricultural insights for farmers. FarmIT’s technology provides farmers with real-time insights that aid them in making optimal decisions in the farming practices, resulting in higher agricultural yield, lower fertiliser needs, and higher income. It is estimated farmers will gain an increase of $3000 from using FarmIT.


Impact measurement:


  1. We measure the number of people who get access to digital devices through our program. 
  2. We measure the program’s success with the loan repayment rate (the percentage of beneficiaries completing their repayments successfully).                                                           
  3. We measure productivity improvement by tracking the increase in crop yield and quality among farmers using smartphones compared to those who do not.
  4. We measure the average increase in income reported by farmers who get smartphones and the FarmIT app. 
  5. We measure the average decrease in fertiliser use reported by farmers who get smartphones and the FarmIT app.
  6. We collect feedback from farmers regarding the usability, effectiveness, and impact of the smartphones and the FarmIT app on their farming practices.
  7. We survey if there are any improvements in farmers’ access to markets and marketing opportunities facilitated by the use of smartphones and the FarmIT app.

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