Inventors: David Godding & Paolo Daza, Listo
Listo is transforming informal agricultural markets with a groundbreaking digital platform available on iOS, Android, and web. Their initial market is Colombia, where they aim to increase transparency and expand opportunities for smallholder farmers.
The flexible and intuitive platform connects all stakeholders in the agricultural supply chain, creating a transparent network that improves market conditions for everyone involved. Additionally, the platform is designed to generate vast amounts of data on informal agriculture, unlocking real-time analytics capabilities for governments, NGOs, and private companies to guide and increase strategic investment into the sector.
Currently, smallholder farmers operate within highly limited networks, often selling their produce to the same buyers based on long-standing relationships. This restricts their market access and potential earnings.
During Listo’s first pilot in Colombia, an 18-month initiative launched amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, they successfully registered over 2,000 users. Although the pilot concluded without pursuing further funding at the time, it provided invaluable insights for the next phase of Listo’s development.
The Listo team is now focused on updating the mobile app to enhance its ‘connectivity’ focussed features and planning their phase 2 pilot strategy. As part of this next phase, the i-Team will play a key role. While Listo’s current focus remains on Colombia, the i-Team will analyse similar initiatives in other low and middle-income countries. Their work will help identify the most impactful product features and assess which services have achieved long-term sustainability through viable business models and funding access, along with compiling examples of what features and growth strategies didn’t work. These insights will guide Listo’s strategy for scaling its approach in Colombia and across South America.