VunaPay, a Kenyan startup revolutionising instant payments for farmers, has been selected winner at the Latitude59 Pitch Competition, Kenya edition securing a trip to Tallinn, Estonia, for Latitude59 2025.
VunaPay beat 382 startups that applied for the competition, with only ten startups making it to the final Latitude59 pitch stage at the ASK Dome in Nairobi. VunaPay emerged victorious, impressing the jury with its impactful solution for farmers and its scalable potential.
In a statement, Latitude59’s CEO, Liisi Org stated, “I was glad to witness three female founders pitching on stage, all of them leading impact startups. This year’s focus was heavily on impact-driven solutions, and there were many strong candidates—most were ready to raise a round and had properly functioning products!”
Latitude59, Estonia’s flagship start-up and tech event held in Nairobi was the second satellite edition. The Latitude59 Kenya Edition 2024 drew nearly 2,000 attendees to the A.S.K Dome, creating a vibrant space for startups, investors, and tech enthusiasts to connect. Latitude59 provides a global platform for not only African and Estonian but also international founders and innovators to find connections that are valuable to them. With that, they have an opportunity to discuss different innovations they have created, forge partnerships and build on already international relations.
VunaPay was selected as the overall winner, securing a trip and a booth at Latitude59 2025 in Tallinn, covered by Latitude59. In addition, VunaPay will get a fast-track access to Tallinn’s Pitch Competition 2025. Twiva received the “Walk the talk” award from Infobip and received platform credits worth of $20,000.
In addition to Latitude59, Cloudplexo, EMERGING Valley, IHUB and SPURT GROUP had also contributed to the competition’s Prize Pool and had a chance to present an award for startups of their choice.
VunaPay, a Spark Accelerator Program mentee facilitates instant payment to smallholder farmers in Kenya inspired by the struggles faced by smallholder farmers who are often left out of the financial system and have little or no access to financial services. The platform digitizes records of agricultural cooperatives such as member management, inventory tracking, and produce management to allow for instant payouts for farmers immediately they deliver their produce to the cooperative.
VunaPay also allows co-operatives to access farmer account information to track their produce and has AI-driven produce scanning technology to estimate yields to ensure fair pay for farmers. The app also geo-maps farmer land to help in planning and optimizing farming activities and encourage better land use management.
VumaPay also has an integration with mobile money, Saccos, banks and micro-finance institutions to build farmer credit scores and aid in financial service inclusion. The platform aims to bridge the gap between farmers and financial service providers to empower smallholder farmers in Kenya and beyond. The firm’s instant payout feature gives farmers a lifeline as it allows them get advance payments upon delivering produce and API integration allows the farmers to grow their credit score and borrow from financial institutions for better yields and standards of living.
As a Safaricom Spark Fund mentee and among the Innovation Award Winners at Connected Africa Summit 2024, the firm has invested heavily into research and development, it’s building its technology infrastructure, expanding its team, and signing up more farmers across the country. The Latitude59 2025 pitch event in Tallinn, Estonia is timely and will help the firm get more partners and support to reach more farmers across Africa.