Khula! a South African app and supply-chain solution took top honours at this year’s MTN Business App Of The Year Awards. The awards which promote the development of homegrown apps are about enabling and showcasing South Africa’s innovation talent. The Khula platform also received recognition in a special category dubbed the Best Agricultural Solution.
How the App Works
Khula! connects farmers in emerging markets with the formal marketplace. These are typically farmers who produce a fairly small harvest. Through the platform, they can combine their crops to reach requirements to supply their products on a larger scale.
Using the app, farmers are able to list their produce and track real-time inventory levels from emerging farmers as well as basic production forecasting. The App also includes a crowd-sourcing marketplace where farmers can satisfy market demand and incoming orders.
The Founders
Karidas Tshintsholo (23) and Matthew Piper (24) are co-founders, and this is their second business venture. They launched the app in 2016 while still studying at the University of Cape Town.
Their mission is to assist black farmers, according to the founders.
“Black farmers have been excluded from the formal markets because their produce is too small,” founder Tshintsholo said in an interview with the Huffington Post. The duo met through the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, for which they had both been selected.
Their clients
According to the same Huffington Post interview, farmers using the platform are currently supplying fresh produce for The Michelangelo Hotel, RocoMamas and the Sandton Convention Centre, among other establishments.
As winners, the developers of the app get a trip to Silicon Valley in the US, worth up to USD 14 000.
Other Winners
This year’s other winners were Pineapple (Best Consumer Solution), Cowa Bunga (Best Enterprise Solution), Digemy Knowledge Partner and Besmarter (Best Incubated Solution), and Bestee App (Most Innovative Solution/Best Breakthrough Developer).
Other award recipients included such names as Stokfella (Best South African Solution), Difela Hymns (Women in STEM Solution), The African Cyber Gaming League App (Best Gaming Solution), dbTrack (Best Health Solution), Ctrl (Best Financial Solution), and Xander English 1-20 which took home the award in the Best Education Solution category.
