Building a Business through Partnerships and Shared Value
An update on the Avenews-GT Scaling Up Journey
Working at a business in the early stages of its growth cycle is definitely full of opportunities for learning. Every day here feels like business school as we further develop our platform, evolve our business model and find new customers. As we grow it’s important to both document and share what we’re discovering.
Since joining Avenews-GT, this question is frequently asked, “What kind of business is Avenews?” And what I have learned is that we are definitely in the business of partnerships, partnerships both externally in our customer value proposition and internally in how we grow the business. While Avenews-GT is a platform for the trade of agricultural produce,
what it really is, is a technology that is designed to strengthen partnerships in agriculture.
Agriculture is a sector that is made up of many different relationships. These start at the first mile with a small-holder farmer working with an SME agribusiness who works with a large agribusiness, and then onto the end consumer or in some cases, if there is a governmental trade relationship in place, to an international buyer. In Sub Saharan Africa, where we are currently most active, these relationships are often complex and incredibly difficult to understand, especially because parts of them are invisible and unknown.
The most significant thing about the agricultural sector, especially in developing markets, is that it is also the most under-serviced sector financially. There is a huge financing gap because financial service providers struggle to access the risks and understand the actual financial needs of the different actors within agricultural supply chains. This is because there is very little, if any, data available on agricultural trading activity.
The challenge is you can’t improve, change or grow what you do not know and cannot track, and you cannot do this without data. This is the real value that Avenews-GT brings to this sector, making the invisible visible.
How the Avenews-GT platform addresses this challenge?
The Avenews-GT platform is a digital platform where trade occurs in a digital, secure and transparent environment and with each new transaction on the platform, there is mutually shared value being created for all partners.
- The trade partnership between a small-holder farmer and an SME agribusiness is strengthened, by giving both parties a digital mechanism to trade more efficiently with one another, and benefit in the long term from each transaction through both the digital visibility and data that previously didn’t exist on their trading activity. In addition we are continuously adding agri-trade tools to add additional value to the farmers to help them grow better businesses.
- The partnership between an agribusiness and their third party service providers such as banks is also strengthened, by creating a secure environment that contains both data and the ability for the bank to offer their SME agribusiness clients more relevant services. Services such as helping them pay their smallholder farmers using mobile wallets or assessing their transactions to help better understand the agribusinesses ability to qualify for a loan.
Our business model is one of shared value, partnering with our clients, who are usually large agribusinesses or financial services providers with a focus on the agri-sector, and is based on the platform’s ability to enable the partnerships in agriculture to strengthen. We don’t charge the users to use our platform, and very rarely do we charge our customers much for implementing the platform,
rather we benefit from the shared value that is created through our data, such as new opportunities for financial or trade related services.
So, the supply chain benefits because trade parties are trading in a way which enables them to both understand their transaction history and share this with formal financial services providers. Our clients win because, if they’re an agribusiness they have a more efficient way of both understanding and managing their business and if they’re a bank they have more opportunities to offer services to the sector such as loans or payments and Avenews-GT benefits because we take a percentage from the new opportunities created through our relationships and a stronger supply chain.
This is a unique business strategy and one that only the right investors understand and value, in fact it’s kind of like agriculture. It’s a hard business model, with a lot of work in the beginning (and some sweat and tears). But the reward over time pays off and like with planting an orchard, you initially wait and wonder what all the hard work was for, until the first harvest, and then the next and the next.
We’re learning a lot as we grow:
- That partnerships take time to get off the ground and it’s a long timeframe from identifying the right partners to actually getting the platform to the end users. We’re trying to use this time to perfect the platform and do small experiments with different types of users to enhance the user experience.
- Because we’re in the business of partnerships, we’re also constantly looking for partners to strengthen the value our platform has for our clients and users: technology partners, educational resource partners, financial services partners and we’re finding some amazing businesses who are helping us to offer more holistic services to the market.
- Funding and investment is critical and without the right investment partners, who get that we are ‘the farmers’ of the investment ecosystem, and who are prepared to invest knowing we’re a long-term bet, we will struggle to grow at the rate we want and take advantage of the opportunities available.
We’re at an exciting stage in our journey and so if you or someone you know are interested in partnering with us: as a client, a resource partner or an investor or if you just want to talk agribusiness and find out more about the agricultural supply chain and the financing gap in this sector, please get in touch with us, https://www.avenews-gt.com/ or mail me directly on danielle@avenews-gt.com
