A South African husband and wife team is using technology to bridge the gap between farmers and buyers globally, drawing on their upbringing in rural farming communities.
The eFama app is a digital marketplace that connects farmers directly with buyers, helping streamline the agricultural supply chain through technology and a network of verified farmers, buyers and logistics partners.
“See it as a digital version of the physical market,” said eFama CEO Shadrack Kubyane.
“Think of eFama as Checkers Sixty60 without the shelves.”
The platform already has about 6,000 buyers on its marketplace and a pipeline of roughly 5,000 farmers looking to join the network.
We have increasing demand across the African continent
— Shadrack Kubyane, eFama CEO
The startup has also secured backing from 10 investors as it continues to expand.
The platform operates nationwide, but demand has spread beyond SA.
“We have increasing demand across the African continent,” said Kubyane, noting that about 5% of users are based outside Africa.
The platform has also reached Europe, the Middle East and North America, serving farmers as far afield as Texas and Colorado.
“The demand is outpacing our supply chain infrastructure,” he said.
Built as a cloud-native startup from the outset, eFama was designed entirely in the cloud, allowing the platform to scale without needing later migration.
This digital-first approach has helped the company cultivate a global community of around 100,000 connections over the past three years, with roughly 30% based in SA.
Its thought leadership and online content have also reached up to 16-million viewers worldwide.
Despite its global footprint, Kubyane said eFama remains firmly rooted in its local operations.
“We are running a global start-up that is proudly South African.”
When we first made it into the corporate world, we wanted nothing to do with our farming past
— Kubyane
Kubyane said he and his wife and co-founder, Eastern Cape-born Pretty Kubyane, both grew up in farming families.
“We joke that we grew up in the 3am club,” he said, referring to the early mornings they spent working on the land.
“When we first made it into the corporate world, we wanted nothing to do with our farming past,” Kubyane said.
That changed when, after years in consulting and corporate roles, they were invited to help a major global tech firm redesign the supply chain of one of the world’s largest retailers.
The experience exposed how many farmers were excluded from formal supply chains.
This formed the initial inspiration behind eFama.
Kubyane said the platform aims to reach SA’s roughly 2.3-million farmers, many still struggling to access reliable markets.
Initially the couple explored launching the platform in SA’s beauty and salon sector.
Then, a Swiss funder encouraged them to focus on agriculture, given their farming background and the supply-chain challenges affecting food security across Africa.
Farmers must undergo a vetting process before selling on the platform, Kubyane said.
This includes reviewing farms, owners, tenants and operational practices, sometimes with the help of technology partners.
The company has kept its core relatively small — the in-house team consists of 16 employees, with about eight full-time at any given time.
eFama also works with freelancers, inspectors, consultants and media companies, for example outsourcing content creation for farmers rather than managing it internally.
But the plan is to expand in-house expertise by adding more quality assurance and industry specialists alongside its software engineers.
Kubyane said eFama works with training institutions to help upskill farmers on the platform, often securing sponsors for those who cannot afford the training.
The company prioritises farmers who already supply institutions such as retailers, mines or hotels, while preparing others through vetting, certification and training.
“It’s thanks to our village days, where we were brought up with a sense of community and belonging,” Kubyane said.
But he hailed digitisation, including in managing risks such as the current foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.
“Digitisation might have been a luxury 10 years ago, but post-Covid and in this FMD environment, increasing traceability from shelf to table is no longer a luxury,” he said.
“It will keep the farm gates open. And farm labourers employed.”
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