Nigerian agro focused crowdfunding online platform Birdpreneur provides investors with direct access to agriculture investment in poultry production. In a recent interview with Innovation Village, Co-Founder, Michael Iyanro tells us how Birdpreneur is connecting investors with farmers seeking funding and how far Birdpreneur has fared in its mission in contributing to the growth of the agricultural sector in Nigeria.
Can we meet the Founder of Birdpreneur?
Michael Iyanro is an entrepreneur who wants to connect people to the world’s food system by making it easier to invest in production agriculture. Michael is the founder and CEO of Birdpreneur, an online platform for investing in poultry production. In 2016 Michael Iyanro, while visiting a farm investment in Europe, conceived the idea of building a crowdfunding platform to streamline agriculture investment in the poultry space. He soon founded Birdpreneur in June 2016 to bring that vision to reality.
What is Birdpreneur all about and what does it have to offer?
Birdpreneur is creating a new asset class that provides investors with direct access to Agriculture Investments normally reserved for large institutions. Crowdfunding is the future of agriculture investing. We are giving the world access to one of the most stable and historically highest returning assets in agriculture. Birdpreneur allows investors to invest directly in the agriculture supply chain. Whether you want to invest in farming, processing, movement of goods, Birdpreneur give you access to the profits of large-scale agriculture projects, which are often only reserved for large institutional investors.
What motivated the creation up of Birdpreneur?
Agriculture is a great investment; it beats the stock and bond markets over the long term, and it’s great for diversifying a retirement portfolio. The problem is, there are limited ways for the average investor to access agriculture deals. Without extensive knowledge and a significant amount of capital, it is very challenging to acquire a farm of the size needed to be profitable. By introducing the concept of equity crowdfunding to production agriculture, Birdpreneur has opened up the asset class to thousands of more investors who may not have been able to enjoy its benefits.
What is unique about the services Birdpreneur has to offer?
We provide low-cost funding and services that reduce risk and increase productivity for our customers. We train farmers by leveraging volunteer graduate students from Agric universities and provide the market for farmers to sell. We take care of logistics to move farm harvests to markets and make sure farmers earn a decent return. We provide funders an avenue to crowdsource funding to directly impact a farmer and gain returns. We have various ways of helping farmers’ chances of making its sponsors a return: expertise for farmers, including technical specialists who are agronomists.
How does Birdpreneur work?
Birdpreneur brings together investors and local farmers. Through Birdpreneur, accredited or institutional investors can participate in pre-identified agriculture investment opportunities in the poultry space with as little as $1,000. Legal document signatures and fund transfers can all be handled securely through our online platform so that investors can complete the entire transaction through the website or with our representatives.
What has the traction been like since its launch?
- Directly contributed to the livelihoods of 2000 farmers in Nigeria.
- Raised and sold over 350,000 chickens.
- Economic empowerment for farmers with 80% increase in their income.
- Increase in number of jobs created.
What were the challenges encountered and achievements recorded so far since Birdpreneur launched?
At our stage, being more than 2 years in operation, we are focused on growing and scaling. This part is painful. The things and tools that brought us to our 5,000th customer are no longer the same things that will make us reach 100,000 and eventually 1,000,000. We believe that we are doing a good job learning the ropes and building our infrastructures for scale. It is just really challenging.
From your point of view how would rate the Nigerian startup ecosystem and in what areas do you think the ecosystem needs support?
Nigeria is home to a wide group of young entrepreneurs and visionaries from all fields, from tech solutions to social impact. It is the country to be in for African startups to develop and grow since all resources are reachable with ease. Nigeria is unique in that her people possess a natural entrepreneurial spirit and are renowned for their enterprising culture. The widespread penetration of mobile banking and the high adoption of automated systems is nearly unmatched on the continent. These ideal factors create a thriving environment where startups and disruptive platforms can fully realize their potential. I believe we will continue to be at the forefront of innovation in Africa.
What advice do you have for prospective African entrepreneurs out there?
If you have a “big idea” for a business, go for it, before someone else does. Be careful when choosing service providers. Industry specialization is important. Carefully segment and understand your customer base so that you can better target them with your marketing efforts.
What are the future plans for Birdpreneur?
We are already looking to raise seed funding for Birdpreneur, particularly in order to reach out to more farmers, impact more lives, and continuously build a sustainable business. For organizations interested in supporting companies like ours, we’ll be happy to get to know you and share more about the exciting things that we are doing. Our long-term goal is to expand into other African countries like Ghana, and Rwanda within the next 3 years.
