A couple of years back, many African countries started investing big in the agricultural space. The investment has been yielding good returns as it helps many nations increase exports and rake in revenue.

Meanwhile, most private sectors and individuals lack the necessary know-how and requirements to reduce risk and maximize profit in farming.

Agriculture goes beyond planting of crops and rearing of livestock. We live in a digital age, and technology has taken agricultural practices to a new level.

To make agricultural practices less risky, a Kenyan startup has developed some tech-based solutions for farmers.

Pula is an insurtech platform that works to support African smallholder farmers. The firm has raised a $6 million Series A funding round to scale its services across the 13 African markets it serves.

In 2015, Thomas Njeru and Rose Goslinga launched Pula. The startup designs and provides innovative agricultural insurance and digital products.

The services Pula render helps smallholder farmers to endure climate risks, improve their farming practices, and ultimately increase their profit over time.

Pula leverages machine learning, crop cut experiments, and data points relating to weather to deliver products that cater to varieties of farming risks.

Notable clients of the startup include the Central Bank of Nigeria, Zambian Government, World Food Programme, Kenyan Government, and many more.

‘’When Thomas and I launched Pula in 2015, we had one goal – to build and provide scalable insurance solution for smallholder farmers in Africa,’’ Rose said.

‘’With our latest funding, the time is right to break into new grounds. In our five years of operation, we’ve built strong traction for our products and services. And we look to penetrate other markets as there are millions of smallholder farmers out there with risks to their livelihoods.’’ Rose concluded.

In this present age, the cost of getting legal aid is on the high side. That is why many don’t have the urge to fight for that which is right legally.

Legal fees have crippled many individuals and companies financially, and many don’t have enough money to get legal assistance.

In a bid to eradicate this problem, two attorneys have partnered to launch Legal Lens.

The South African startup aims to protect individuals, companies, and state entities from inflated legal charges.

The firm, which came to be in November 2020, was founded by Yusha Davidson and Catherine-Jane Paulse.

Legal Lens boasts of its ability to reduce legal fees by up to 60%, or an average of 10%. The startup allows their clients to send in invoices and any correspondence related to arrangement on legal charges.

The firm digitally reviews submitted invoices to identify areas of potential savings using experienced attorneys, machine learning, and optical character recognition. It then engages the client’s lawyer regarding the charges.

Legal Lens handles all engagements professionally to avoid soiling the relationship between the clients and their respective lawyers.

Following the revision of the invoices, the startup obtains a new invoice reflecting the reduced fee to be paid from the legal firm.

Meanwhile, the startup charges its clients 17.5% of the amount saved. In a case where there is no reduction in the fees, Legal Lens does not charge.

”The recent discussion paper by the South African Law Reform Commission regarding its investigation into legal fees confirms that improper and unethical billing is a reality in the county,” Paulse stated.

The pair realized that it was difficult to review legal invoices, as clients fear tampering the close relationship they have with their lawyers.

Besides, they may not have the necessary knowledge required to dispute legal invoices.

”It’s time-consuming. So, we developed a tech-based solution to review legal invoices and reduce legal charges,” Davidson said.

Karisimbi Technology is a Rwanda-based e-health startup that is working round the clock to reduce – and possibly eliminate – paperwork in Rwandan Hospitals.

In that vein, the health-focused startup has started offering hospitals digital patient files that ease service delivery.

So far, the innovation by Karisimbi has been to treat over 30,000 patients in various hospitals across Rwanda.

The startup began operations in 2016. It was founded by Angelo Igitego after accompanying a relative to a local hospital in Kigali.

‘’Wait times were very long and difficult. As a systems thinker, I saw there was an opportunity to automate repetitive tasks like patient file creation, file retrieval, and billing,’’ said Angelo.

Angelo did come up with a solution and named it IvuliroTech. It is a software that helps hospitals go paperless, and it provides them with detailed electronic medical records for every patient.

‘’Paper files are expensive to print, store, and manage. Besides, they cause a delay in service delivery. Imagine having to look for a single file among thousands of files when the life of the patient is on the line.’’

Karisimbi’s primary aim is to solve the problem of delayed service delivery by eliminating the cause of the delay. Since the firm launched its MVP in September 2019, over a dozen hospital have adopted the digital recording system.

‘’Ninety percent of them are paying clients. We are in the process of working with the umbrella organization of private medical facilities. The collaboration will boost our market share handsomely in the next two years,’’ Angelo concluded.