Agrikool: A Digital Agri-market place

AgriKool is a South African agritech startup founded in 2018 by Zamokuhle Thwala, an agricultural engineer and former smallholder farmer, and co-owned by agricultural scientist Palesa Motaung. Based in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, the company runs a digital marketplace that connects smallholder and medium-scale farmers directly with retailers and buyers. By cutting out intermediaries and streamlining logistics, AgriKool boosts farm-to-shelf efficiency while offering access to market data, financial services, and crowd-funded production. In its first five years, the platform delivered over 3 million kilograms of fresh produce to stores like Shoprite, generating more than R12 million in payouts to farmers and over R22 million in revenue.

A major milestone came in December 2021, when AgriKool partnered with Shoprite’s Freshmark, entering formal retail with support from Shoprite’s Next Capital programme. With compliance training, working capital, and supply chain support, AgriKool scaled operations across 22 farms and deployed over 100 refrigerated trucks to transport produce. Within a year, the company delivered R3 million in fresh goods to Freshmark, all while creating jobs and enhancing food security in rural communities.

AgriKool’s impact has earned multiple accolades. It won the 2021 SAB Social Innovation Award and secured over R2.4 million in funding from the SAB Foundation, AlphaCode, and the French Embassy’s AgTech Innovation Awards. In 2022, it was selected for Google’s Black Founders Fund Africa cohort. Co-founder Zamokuhle Thwala was also a top finalist in the AlphaCode Incubate Initiative. These honors affirm AgriKool’s role in transforming agricultural value chains and advancing inclusive innovation across Southern Africa.