Venture Spotlight: Lima Technologies

The Health Entrepreneurship (HENT) Challenge’s first cohort is visiting Toronto this summer, where they are continuing their implementation phase through activities targeting business development, expanding entrepreneurial networks and facilitating exposure to potential investors. 

The HENT Communications team caught up with the ventures to learn more about the origins of their companies, what they’ve learned to date, and what is coming up next... 

Lima Technologies - RWANDA

Ariane Umuringa (CEO), Alexis Juma (COO), Lawrence Njihia (CFO), and Peter Musyoki (CTO) were drawn together by their shared drive to create impactful solutions for Africa’s 33 million small-holder farmers. They founded Lima Technologies, a venture informed by their shared backgrounds as the children and grandchildren of farmers. They knew that small-holder farmers never seemed to earn what was commensurate to their efforts and often did not know where best to sell their products. This lack of knowledge caused many farmers to miss out on opportunities to earn money and created food waste as buyers were unaware of where to source produce outside of the market.

Through Lima Technologies web application, they aim to tackle nutrition and supply chain inefficiencies of food in Africa through a centralized digital platform that allows for food predictability, traceability, and reliability by leveraging data, allowing enterprises to better feed Africa’s 1.2 billion people and empowering farmers to earn from their produce. The Lima Technologies web application allows farmer produce to be posted and enables buyers to browse through a catalogue of available produce, make a payment, and have their produce directly delivered to them—all within their platform. 

What is the accomplishment to date that your team is most proud of?   

Lima Technologies is most proud of their first ever sale, which was for 5 tons of sunflowers. This first sale was to a client who became a recurring customer who uses their platform for each harvest.  Another proud milestone is the development of their minimum viable product that they are using to do pilot projects with farmers and buyers. 

If you could give advice to another founder getting started, what would that be?   

“Do not be afraid of failure when innovating. If anything, fail fast and learn faster.” 

Lima Technologies will be officially launched their product in May 2023. Looking forward to the next two years, the venture is looking to onboard more than 10,000 farmers onto their platform and expand their service to include storage and farm input access.  

You can learn more about Lima Technologies by visiting their website. 

Venture Spotlight: Syna Consultancy

The Health Entrepreneurship (HENT) Challenge’s first cohort is visiting Toronto this summer, where they are continuing their implementation phase through activities targeting business development, expanding entrepreneurial networks and facilitating exposure to potential investors. 

In the meantime, the HENT communications team caught up with the ventures from the first HENT Challenge cohort to learn more about the origins of their companies, what they’ve learned to date, and what is coming up next... 

Syna Consultancy - KENYA

Syna Consultancy was created after a conversation with the parent of child with cerebral palsy who was advocating for a hygienic and dependable bathroom solution. After noticing the lack of access to safe and dignified toilets for those who are physically challenged, Co-Founders Sylvia Nyaga and John Kemoli were driven to create an innovative sanitation solution to not only reach those with cerebral palsy, but more generally to aid physically challenged, elderly, and sick populations. Nyaga and Kemoli were faced with the obstacle of recognizing that all physically challenged populations have different needs. They addressed this obstacle by planning, designing and installing tailor-made sanitation solutions for each population while acknowledging that sanitation training is also needed alongside implementation. Syna Consultancy has obtained a utility-model for their innovative design.

What is the accomplishment to date that your team is most proud of?  
The successful transition from prototyping to final product, which is currently in the market, impacting lives and contributing towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6. Additionally, we have grown our sales by five times over the course of the last year.  

If you could give advice to another founder getting started, what would that be? 

Starting a venture comes with its share of challenges, but nothing beats the feeling of witnessing your innovation make a difference and impact lives. I would advise them to keep being resilient and continuously think outside the box. 

Looking forward, Syna Consultancy will introduce leasing of their flagship product, the Utulav toilet, to make it accessible to people with temporary disabilities and those who cannot afford the full product price. Additionally, the venture is focused on promoting inclusivity of their product by offering their expertise as consulting services to architects and construction professionals and hope to expand services to East Africa by the end of 2023. 

You can learn more about Syna Consultancy by visiting their website.