Divin Kouebatouka is the Founder and CEO of Mvutu, a technology platform providing end-to-end agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high-quality agricultural inputs, personalised agricultural advice and access to financial service. It also provides a cold chain for the conservation of harvested food using data science and demand-matching technologies to meet the specific demands of large buyers by increasing the production capacities of smallholder farmers.
Its mission is that each Mvutu unit caters to 1,000 farmers in a watershed of four to six km. It provides services such as a wide range of agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers, crop protection), personalised advice on crops and linking agricultural products to the market under one roof. Small farmers have access to Mvutu’s services at relatively low cost thanks to our vertically integrated business model. So far, it has built a strong network of over 3000 small farmers and 700 dealers in 3 counties in Congo and created over 100 jobs. On average, the smallholders it works with have seen their incomes increase by up to 25%.
Divin is an Award-winning Entrepreneur, he has received numerous awards for his work in social entrepreneurship, including being recognised by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the world’s top 100 thinkers for 2016. He was nominated as an African Entreprebeurship Award 2018, Top 100 for best African entrepreneur in land restoration-Land Accelerator Africa 2021, Laureat of Generation Restoration Youth Challenge 2021 UpLink – World Economic Forum, Food Systems Game Changers Lab Global Open 2021 Thought For Food, BoomStartup Accelerator’s PitchUp Two competition among other international and local recognitions.
