Agritech Startup SwiftVEE Secures $1.5m; Plans To Expand To Other African Countries

The funding would be used for the expansion of the agritech’s services in South Africa and neighboring countries including Namibia and Botswana.

With the new investment, swiftVEE will be included on Zire, South Africa’s first multi-industry agricultural services platform that will provide technology services to industry stakeholders in the livestock, fruit, and vegetable sector. SwiftVEE will be able to grow its market share to new consumers across several sectors by leveraging Zire, which is scheduled to launch in 2021.

In an interview with the chief executive officer of Ventureburn, Russel Luck, comments on the investment gotten and conditions of Covid-19 to generate innovation in the agritech sector.

 “SwiftVEE’s growth and investment show an important change in attitude within the agriculture sector. Local Agribusinesses have recognized the importance of re-investing themselves due to the impact COVID has in the acceleration of the rate at which agriculture pivots to the fourth revolution. In the age of the new normal, the door to new opportunities is opened for technology startups to develop a new narrative.”

SwiftVEE’s innovative technology

SwiftVEE was established in 2016 and the official launch was in 2017. It is a livestock trading platform that connects online consumers to livestock auctions for real-time purchases in low latency areas like farmlands.

The CEO provides insight into the mission of swiftVEE.

“We aim to optimize trade between buyers and sellers of livestock using artificial intelligence technology and bring foreign livestock buyers to South African markets. By pursuing this goal, we solve huge challenges caused by trading inefficiency within the livestock trading sector (problems such as food insecurity/resource scarcity / global hunger).”

Making use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, swiftVEE can match buyers and sellers at an optimal time which optimizes market efficiency.

The company has innovated the local method of livestock purchasing, by digitizing the auction process online, real-time auction abilities for livestock farmers and agents around the world.

The CEO of the company, Luck, commented on using cutting-edge technology. He commented, on what differentiates swiftVEE from other leading competitors.  

He said ”We are the founders of real-time online livestock trading in South Africa which were never successfully achieved because of the difficulties of doing real-time bidding over the internet while auctions were happening at farms (with no connectivity). What differentiates us from the start is our use of machine learning and AI. Which maps market pricing and the sales prices of animal breeds in certain areas to connect buyers and sellers at optimal times and locations.”

The digital platform is committed to agents of livestock and ensures the agents are not excluded from the value chain process.

He added that irrespective of the challenges encountered by the pandemic, the traditional startup has soared to attain new heights.

“Despite the economic difficulties caused by COVID and pre-existing recession in South Africa, swiftVEE broke two South African records for the most expensive Simbra Bull sold in SA for R 270 000.00 and a Boran Bull sold for R 1 700 000.00. The latter is being reviewed as a Guinness World Record.”

SwiftVEE plans to expand into the Sub-Saharan, Europe, and USA markets at the start of 2022.