Innovative, modern solutions for efficient farmers
About Synnefa
There is no single problem in agriculture — and there is no single solution.
Smallholder farming sits at the intersection of climate risk, markets, infrastructure, finance, knowledge, and trust.
Anyone who has worked closely with farmers knows that improving one part of the system without addressing the others rarely leads to lasting change.
Synnefa exists to improve incomes for smallholder farmers at scale by solving for the system as a whole.
How we see the Problem
For years, smallholder farmers have been offered fragmented solutions — a tool here, a training there, a pilot that ends when funding runs out.
Many of these efforts are well-intentioned, but few are designed to last.The reality is that farmers do not fail because they lack effort.
They struggle because the systems around them are misaligned: climate shocks without protection, production without markets, data without decisions, infrastructure without ownership.
Synnefa was built to work inside this reality — not around it.
Our Approach
We take a systems approach to agriculture:
We design with partners, not for them
We stay close to farmers and the field
We prioritise long-term use over short-term pilots
We accept complexity and design for it
This approach takes more discipline than pushing standalone products. It requires trust, iteration, and patience. But it is the only approach we have seen consistently deliver results at scale.
How We Work
Synnefa is a B2B and B2B2C agritech company.
We work with the organisations that already sit at the centre of smallholder farming ecosystems:
1. Farmer cooperatives and producer organisations
2. Agribusinesses and off-takers
3. NGOs and development programmes
4. Government institutions and public agencies
These partners are our customers. Farmers are the focus of the impact.
Rather than selling isolated products, we work with partners to design and deploy integrated farming systems that make it easier to manage risk, improve productivity, reduce post-harvest loss, and connect farmers to markets.
What we build
Our work combines physical infrastructure and digital tools, designed to function together in real farming conditions.
Depending on context, this includes:
1. Smart solar dryers and smart greenhouses for post-harvest infrastructure and climate-smart production.
2. Our proprietary FarmShield™ IoT sensor device for environmental sensing and on-farm monitoring.
3. FarmCloud™ software platform a digital tool for agribusinesses, farmer co-operatives, NGOs and Government institutions used for crop planning, traceability, Impact and IoT telemetry data collection and analysis, market access and asset repayment tracking.
We do not believe technology is the answer by itself. We build tools that organisations can operate, maintain, and adapt — because sustainability depends on ownership, not novelty.
The Synnefa journey started with a dream
Jan 2013
We hatched! Founded by 2 broke friends on campus.
Jan 2014
Incorporated and began building with Arduino boards in the hostels.
August 2014
The first prototype built and deployed at the foot of Mt.Kilimanjaro. Crushed within 7 days!
Dec 2015
Hired our first employee and reached 100 farms.
Feb 2015
Used Raspberry pi and worked amazing signed up 50 pre-orders.
November 2014
iHub loves our work! offers us office space and incubation. Finally moved out of our hostels! Yeeiii.
June 2016
President Obama comes to Kenya and loves our pitch, invites us to the US and offers us partnership and our first funding $15000 from AAAS
Jan 2017
V3 comes out better and smarter with solar power, everything we ever wanted. hired our employee #10
March 2018
Rapid testing and reiterations of V3. then backed by USADF, ASME SPRING $110 000 for further development
Oct 2023
Got backed by Livelihood Impact Fund, Mulago Foundation, Google, GSMA Foundation and MIT Solve. Reached 17,000 farmers in Africa
Sept 2021
We secured our pre-seed round lead by 54 Collective and Water and Energy for Food. Rebranded from Illuminum Greenhouses to Synnefa.
Jan 2020
Innovate UK joins our mission and funds us with $856,000 to build Smart Greenhouses for Africa powered by FarmShield™ v4.0. Our first angel investor says yes to back us
Dec 2024
Released FarmCloud™ 2.0 BETA and grew users to 3,000 farmers across 13 African countries. Expanded FarmShield™ to smart solar dryers funded by Efficiency for Access. Reached 21,000 farmers.
Listen to our CEO talk about our Smart Solar Dryer in Kenya
Synnefa is built by a multidisciplinary team of engineers, agronomists, designers, and operators who care deeply about smallholder agriculture. We are practitioners and many of us have spent years working directly with farmers, co-operatives, and agricultural institutions across Africa. B2B partnerships are built on trust, and we believe trust starts with knowing the people you will work with everyday.
Meet the Synnefa Team
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