Ethiopian Social Buying Platform ChipChip Secures 30 Million Birr in Grant

ChipChip, a social buying platform that connects customers directly to farmers, bypassing traditional supply chains and allowing group purchase has been awarded the 2024 Kofi Annan Award for innovation in Africa.

Selected from a pool of 832 startups across the continent, the company will receive a €250,000 grant, around 30 million birr.  The newly secured funding will be used towards area expansion, technological development, and product onboarding, according to Amir Redwan Co-founder and Co-CEO of ChipChip.

The startup won the Kofi Annan Award for its innovative farm-to-fork model and tech-enabled ‘group-buying’ to streamline inefficient food supply chains.

“Our mission is to revolutionize the food supply chain in Ethiopia by directly connecting smallholder farmers with consumers through a “farm-to-fork” approach,” Amir told Shega. “Some of our products are up to 20%-50% off currently” he added.

By cutting out middlemen and leveraging collective buying, the startup aims to offer consumers with affordable fresh produce, while providing farmers better prices and reducing food wastage. “And the award recognizes this transformative impact to make food accessible to Ethiopian households while ensuring farmers have greater control over their sales and incomes.”

“Since its launch in Nov 2023, ChipChip has amassed 60k users, features around 80 products, averaging a 3000 order daily,” states Amir.

Founded by a group of seven people ChipChip is designed as a group e-commerce marketplace where people come together and order their groceries and get the price of a mass with free delivery. Some of the individuals behind ChipChip are the same team that co-founded Tiku’s Delivery, the food delivery platform.

Users can download the app, register with their phone number, create a group, and add up to five members to place group orders. Individual purchases are also possible but with slightly higher prices.

The Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa, supported by the Austrian Federal Chancellery, recognizes startups using technology and innovation to address critical social challenges. This year’s competition attracted nearly hundreds of applicants from across the continent, with the top 12 finalists competing for the €250,000 grant. Three ventures are selected to receive the monetary prize.

The other two winners are from Kenya. Amini aims to Solve Africa’s environmental data scarcity to regenerate natural capital through AI and space technologies and Fresh Networks works to make safe, high-quality milk affordable for underserved, low-income urban households in Kenya.