Thrive Agric is an investment platform that helps people fund farming endeavours in return for a return after the maturity date. It was founded by Uka Eje and Ayodeji Arikawe in 2016 and fully launched in 2017.
Background
Post-harvest loss is a significant challenge faced in the agricultural sector in Nigeria. Lack of access to funding, better inputs, sufficient data, and premium markets have reduced the productivity of farmers and their farms.
On the other side, individuals who want to be a part of agricultural ventures face the challenge of finding farms to invest in and having a way to monitor their investment and get the returns as at when due.
Suggested read: How Crop2Cash is Digitizing the Value Chain and Making Finance Accessible for Farmers
These challenges are what the Thrive Agric app helps people overcome with its mobile app. The app is available on the Android and iOS app stores.
I reviewed the version 1.2.0 of the Android app based on simplicity, functionality and returns on investment.
Functionality: What people do with the Thrive Agric app
After an account has been created on the app, a dashboard opens up with options to fund a farm, monitor transactions, and update the personal details of the owner.
To fund a farm, select the Farms option, or the Fund A Farm option. Both options will open up a page where available farming ventures are displayed. The farms are sub-categorized into Open, Closed, and Coming soon.
If there are farms to be funded immediately, they will be listed under Open, the farms that have been invested in completely will be found under Closed while those that will soon be open for investments will be found under Coming soon.
Once you select a farm venture that is still taking investment, details of the venture will be displayed along with the amount required for funding, maturity period, and the return on the investment.
The units of investments are represented by plots. You can invest in one plot for a fixed amount, and you can invest in more than one plot for a corresponding amount.
When you select the option to invest, the payment page opens up and prompts you to enter your card details and make the transfer.
This adequately provides a way for people to invest in farming businesses and monitor their transactions.
Simplicity
The app provides a simple and intuitive interface that provides the information the user needs at different steps along the way. This makes the investment process an easy one for even a first-time user.
Other users’ experience with the app shows that it is easy to use. Tomi Adeyemo, a reviewer on Playstore said:
“It is functional and really straightforward. I did not have to navigate too much to figure things out.”
A downside is that there are not always farms available to invest in. Considering that users will download the app for the sole purpose of investing in a farm, it defeats the purpose if there are considerably long periods where there are no farms to fund.
Competition and rate of returns on investment
Farmcrowdy, EZ farming and FarmKart are competitors with Thrive Agric. Farmcrowdy allows people to invest in ventures including Maize, poultry farm, cassava, soybeans and rice farms.
The returns provided by Farmcrowdy ranges from 11% and can be more or less. Investment periods are usually for 6 months but can be longer.
EZ farming offers 11% to 45% returns on investments based on what the venture is while Thrive Agric offers 6% to 25% and the investments mature within 3 t0 9 months.
Farmkart offers up to 30% returns on investments in its livestock farm. Its investments mature within 6 to 12 months.
Only Farmcrowdy and Thrive Agric have a mobile application for users, the others provide a web app for users to use.
Based on its ease of use and functionality, Thrive Agric is a good choice for anyone who wants to invest in agric businesses, however, other competitors offer slightly higher returns on investment.
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