The 90% failure rate of agri-tech pilots in Africa is not a technology problem; it is a business model failure. The solutions coming out of startups are impressive and promise great impact but somehow launching a great product is just not enough. It doesn’t help that innovating in agri-tech, especially for those companies producing hardware, is a slow, sometimes painful process to begin with.

The reality is that agriculture in Africa is a market defined by fragmented value chains, underfunded farmers and seasonal planting cycles rendering a product-only approach as a path to failure. This challenge demands a new playbook; one that integrates strategic fundraising and partnership development from the very beginning.

I have here the playbook for how this should be approached. It is a structured, three-phase framework for de-risking market entry for agri-startups and building commercially viable ventures that can scale. The phase durations are not cast in stone; they are merely for guidance purposes. At the end of the day, building any business doesn’t follow a linear path, it is sometimes a rollercoaster. Some software companies can take half the time to reach scale while hardware companies can take five years just to find product-market fit.

Leaders who will win in this market must adopt a different mindset from Day 1. They understand that launching products goes hand in hand with building ecosystems. It is equally imperative that the leaders themselves understand that they need to grow with their companies too. Each phase of the process requires a different version of the person through continuous development of soft and hard skills for success.

Phase 1: Pilot & Prove (The Data Phase)

What makes the first 12-24 months successful is not revenue; it is proof. The goal is to prove an undeniable case for your product's value and impact. This is where you cross the chasm from a technical aspiration to a validated market solution.

To do this, your focus should be on three key activities:

• Secure Foundational Partnerships: For starters, we are not going mass marketing; we are going directly to the ground. Your first key partners are NGOs or community organizations working with your target end-users: farmers. These institutions provide the two things you cannot buy: trust and access. Leveraging their credibility is the fastest way to engage with the ‘early adopter’ farmers who are critical for initial feedback and data.

• Implement Rigorous Data Collection: Everything you do at this stage is geared towards generating data from the use of your solution. This requires a disciplined Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) process to capture everything from usage patterns to the real-world impact on a farmer's yield and income.

• Validate the ‘Whole Product’ concept: The feedback from these early adopters is what allows you to build the ‘Whole Product’ that the mainstream market requires. This is not a perfect solution; it is one that fulfills the core must-have essentials together with performance upgrades as per farmer needs. This means refining your core tech to be simple, durable, and reliable, while also building the necessary support, training, and trust that surrounds it.

The output of Phase 1 is not a steady stream of cash. It is a portfolio of undeniable proof points and ROI case studies. This is the asset you will take to investors, banks, and commercial partners to unlock the next phase of growth. Most startups get this right in terms of the how.

Phase 2: Validate & Scale (The Commercial Phase)

The next 18-24 months shifts focus to getting commercial traction by answering this crucial question: can you get sales going? This is where you validate the commercial model, transitioning decisively from donor dependence to sustainable revenue. Your core mandate is to secure financing and distribution partners to grow recurring revenue.

To achieve this, you will execute on four strategic fronts:

• Architect a Diversified Revenue Model: In the beginning, direct B2C sales to smallholders are crucial for market presence even though they are not a primary revenue driver, as such. They also give you some much needed on the ground market awareness. It sets the tone for a stable model that will be built on leveraging B2B value chain actors for consistent revenue, supplemented by accessible installment plans for farmers through financing partners.

• Secure Foundational Financing Partners: It goes without saying that onboarding SACCOs, MFIs, agriculture-focussed fintechs and national banks is non-negotiable. You will use the data portfolio from Phase 1 as your primary asset, providing Financial Service Providers with the evidence they need to assess creditworthiness and underwrite bundled loans. To be fair, there is still quite a lot of work in getting the conventional financing systems to view agriculture-related activities as a viable business investment.

• Build a Scalable Sales & Support Engine: Sales is not just getting a customer to buy, it also includes the cost of the making the sale, handling any technical issues after the fact and ensuring the customer is satisfied. You should seek to reduce Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) by deploying an efficient, commission-based agent model in the initial stages. Crucially, you must integrate after-sales and repair services into this engine; for hardware products, robust support is a non-negotiable part of the value proposition. These latter points also help to build your brand as a reliable company.

• Embed Investment Readiness (IR) into Your Operations: You win the next stage by preparing for it now which means IR is not a separate activity; it is a continuous and enabling function. This means maintaining rigorous financial documentation and models that clearly map the pathway to profitability and ROI, allowing you to engage targeted investors with confidence and focus your capital requests on long-term value creation. This will make sure you know your numbers which sets you apart when seeking funding.

You will be successful in this phase by hitting a critical commercial milestone such as the first 1,000 units sold. If this is backed by a repeatable, scalable sales process and secured partnerships, then you have hit the jackpot. This is the proof point that unlocks venture capital, strategic grants and the next stage of growth. This phase is where most startups get stuck.

Phase 3: Dominate & Expand (The Leadership Phase)

After establishing commercial viability in Phase 2, the objective becomes attaining profitability and market leadership. Your work now is to build the robust operational and talent systems required to sustain growth in a volatile market. This is all about the processes and the people who will make your company a commercial engine.

This requires a focus on four key activities:

• Scale Your Distributor Network: Deepen relationships with key ecosystem players and large agribusinesses to access massive user bases. You will use the commercial data from Phase 2 as the undeniable justification for regional expansion.

• Build Your Internal ‘Enablers of Scale’ or simply ‘the A Team’: You have the right people in your corner, you win the game. You need to establish an in-house tech and product teams to drive rapid iteration and maintain product quality. At the same time, these teams will need a resilient, adaptable leadership at the helm. This is the ultimate competitive advantage in unpredictable sectors so get the right people.

• Master Regulatory & Macro Adaptation: Actively monitor and leverage the policy environment for expansion. This is especially key in Africa where you may have vastly different government regulations in every country. You must build organizational resilience against inevitable macroeconomic shocks because they will be there.

• Amplify Your Holistic Impact: The culture of data collection especially on impact metrics built in phase 1 should be mainstay of the company. Continue rigorous, longitudinal evaluation to demonstrate the sustained socio-economic impact of your ecosystem. This data was initially for case studies, but it is now a strategic asset for attracting top-tier talent, partners, and DFI funding.

Going forward, we aim for profitability and a dominant market position as the key outcomes. The mechanism is a robust, adaptive operating model that ensures your resources, talent, and strategic commitments are perfectly aligned.

Conclusion: An Ecosystem Mindset is Not Optional

Producing the best hardware or software for Africa’s farmers is essential but on its own, it will not ensure your venture’s success. A lot of work will need to go into creating a robust and integrated ecosystem to ensure the solution is adopted at scale.

Leaders who understand this and follow a disciplined, phased approach to building that ecosystem will not only survive; they will dominate. Those who remain focused on the product alone have already chosen to fail.