Agriculture in SA is a massive industry, but change is slow and seasonal. Which makes building a tech startup in the space so much harder.

In this episode of How Would You Build It, we speak with Louis de Kock, founder of Nile.ag, a tech-driven marketplace revolutionising agriculture across Southern Africa.

This isn’t the first time someone’s tried to digitise agri supply chains — but Louis and his team have succeeded where others haven’t. Why? Timing, execution, and trust.

We talk about:

• Raising R200 million to scale a two-sided marketplace

• Why transparency and word of mouth drive growth in legacy industries

• Building what farmers actually want and need — not what looks good in a pitch deck

Listen now on your favourite platform.‍

Or skip to the highlights:

03:40 Why now is different for Agritech

06:18 Tech and the age dynamics of farmers

10:55 How Nile built their Tech team

12:26 Seasonality and trust

15:42 Managing early growth

19:13 More than tech to move the needle

21:59 Recipe for success

24:49 e-commerce vs Logistics company

25:38 What were investors looking for that landed funding

29:40 The data play opportunity

31:46 How funding builds trust

36:58 That validation moment

40:21 The hidden value Proposition

42:08 How transparency unlocks value