Our Favourite Top 10 Zimbabwean Start-Ups

The Entrepreneurial Magazine Brings a Top 10 of Zimbabwean Start-Ups, Based on the nominations done by its audience.

ARRANGED IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

1. Farmbuzz Agriculture Solutions

Founded in 2019 by Anesu Mapisa, who is also the chief agronomist, Farmbuzz Agriculture Solutions started as a consultancy company and later developed into a comprehensive firm that provides technological services to farmers. It is an agriculture technology company which is promoting smart farming in Africa by bringing new farming technology solutions that can sustain the food production sector.

It is being managed by 10 solution-driven entrepreneurs inspired by the desire of making Africa food secure. Its team consists of agronomist, biotechnologist, business managers, information and communication engineers and accountants. It provides services such as crop drone spraying technology, livestock artificial insemination, soil moisture sensors, farm equipment hiring mobile app and many more.

In its first year it managed to assist more than 500 farmers with consultancy services, and 5 farms with production. The future of Farmbuzz is to become the hub of all agriculture technology solutions in Africa.

2. eAgro

Founded in 2020 by Tafadzwa Chikwereti (Award Winning Entrepreneur), Golden Nhunhama (Data Analyst), Tafadzwa Mutanho (Agronomist) and Yolandah Sibanda (Software and Web Developer), eAgro envisions to make farming sustainable and profitable in Zimbabwe.

One of the founders was raised in farming household and seeing challenges that farmers face, he grew up with a passion to solve the problems associated with farming. eAgro comes with a solution for over 3.1 million small holder farmers that are unable to access bank loan products by connecting them to financing using mobile phones, alternative data, and machine learning to close the critical data gap that prevents financial institutions from lending to worthy smallholder farmers. Currently, the company over 100 farmers using its services and the future the company seeks to continuously refine its services and disrupt the Agricultural Sector in Zimbabwe and Africa at large.

3. Umojalands

Founded in February 2020 by Tafadzwa Gavi (27) and inspired by the struggles he faced whilst in search for farming land due to unemployment, Umojalands is there to connect underutilised land with potential farmers through partnership model initiatives, on farm employment and or leasing.

Through Umojalands, Farm seekers can access available underutilised land with detailed information not limited to Soil analysis, Water availability, Virtual crop consultants, plot info and documentation, crop history and available arable land using any internet enabled device. It has also launched farmer electronic identification (farmer eID) which support financial inclusion by providing banks and Microfinance with real time farmer data and crop assessments for loan processing and inputs distribution. The vision is to ensure food security, fair trade and financial inclusion by 2035.

4. Eonra Health

Founded in June 2019 to serve the Digital Health Sector by creating the patient centred platform for personalised healthcare in Zimbabwe, Eonra Health is co-owned by a registered pharmacist.

Eonra Health seeks to create convenience to the patient since it eliminates the need for him or her to walk around pharmacies in search for affordable medicines through its online pharmaceutical market. The platform has a number of features which allows the user to check on stock, compare prices, uploading prescription and purchasing medicine.

The start-up seeks to change the digital pharmacy practice in 2021. Its founders are was Arnold Pinias and Tatenda Marufu.

5. Haven Construction Pvt Ltd

Founded by Gladmore Moses (35) in 2018, Haven Construction envisions to develop a professional construction brand that is associated with quality and affordability to low-medium income clients and contribute to sustainable rural development models.

Haven Construction (Pvt) Ltd provides comprehensive agricultural and residential construction services. In agricultural construction, the company designs, constructs and maintains modern agricultural structures such as pigsties, greenhouses, goat pens, cattle pens and fowl runs. In residential construction, the company works on small to medium scale projects such as Architectural Designs, New Construction, Renovations and Extensions, driveways, Boundary Walls, Painting, Roofing, Ceilings, Landscaping and Building Maintenance services.  

6. Kafay Mimshack Pvt Ltd

Founded in 2017 by Faith Chimbiko (28) who has a bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Technology and a vision to build a legacy for generations to come, it pushed her to start her own business.

Kafay Mimshack strives to produce value added, fresh and clean products. It gives the society 100 percent natural juice made from baobabs. It is packed with antioxidants vitamin c, calcium, iron which fights diseases such as stroke heart attacks, anaemia and cancer.

Kafay Mimshack looks forward to introduce baobab ice popsicles, have branches all over Zimbabwe and export products to neighbouring countries.

7. Digital Kiota (Pvt) Ltd

Founded in March 2020, Digital Kiota’s mandate is to create a number of digital products that will fit well into the African context and make people’s lives better. Its first product, PlaynLearn; a supplementary educational content platform with tutorial videos that can be accessed on any internet enabled device, with the ability to save for offline viewing.

Digital Kiota draws its inspiration from the fact that Zimbabwe and Africa at Large remain a net importer of digital applications, software and related technology, hence they saw a need to create a company that focus on digital solutions that are in line with Zimbabwean Context and Africa at Large.

It was founded by Kudakwashe Mlambo (24), Takudzwa P Chibaduke (23) and Brent K Zembe (22) and its ambition is to successfully launch PlaynLearn into a trusted supplementary educational content library for students not only in Zimbabwe, but across Africa.

8. El-Agua

Founded in 2017 by Ivan Ndlala (24) and Sengamo Trinity Dube (25), El-Agua envisions to eliminate the impact of water shortages in Africa. The mission of El-Agua is to promote sustainable use of water bodies through purification and advanced research on water.

The effects of the El Nino Drought and Poor Sanitation in certain parts of Southern Africa inspired El-Agua. Current projections on water demand being expected to increase by 55% from 2020 to 2050 globally has made El-Agua to focus on easing demand of water on water sources whilst also managing solid waste. The initiative is meant for all types of areas; it can be built at small scale for farmers and at larger scale for towns and cities.

Whilst over the past years El-Agua has made tremendous milestones such as being recognised by Zimbabwe Farmers Union as the Best Agricultural Innovation in their ZFU’s Annual Agri preneurship and 2020 Finalists for best Young Entrepreneur Category in the Green Enterprise Second Edition, it highlights funding as a major challenge since their operations demands high capital.

9. Big Horns Construction and Engineering

Formally incorporated in the year 2020, Big Horns envisions to be the market leader in the construction and engineering sector.

Big Horns is made up of a team that prior to its incorporation worked on different projects in the Southern Africa Region which include Hotel Maternity Ward in Swaziland, Mine Accommodation and Offices in Zambia and also Research Stations in Botswana.

Big Horns’ future lies in unlocking value for its stakeholders through provision of tailor made, unique, timeous customer oriented real estate, construction and engineering services.

10. Greatness Hub

Founded by Ngonidzashe Sesemani and registered in 2019, Great Hub is a Zimbabwean based consulting firm providing quality development solutions and services to purpose driven individuals and organisations. Its main focus is on strategic and operational planning, capacity building-training-facilitation, conducting research-evaluations-surveys, business transformation and project management, mentorship, coaching and speaking.  According the founder, his inspiration came from the expertise he acquired in the field of development work for over 8years. He also realised that there’s is a gap in the services sector. Main inspiration was the desire to become his own boss, have control, financial independence and freedom. The hub has so far influenced a number of initiatives in the Zvishavane community and beyond.