How Terrafy wants to turn Africa’s undocumented rural land into bankable assets 🌍

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Founded in 2026 in Nairobi by Victor Shikoli, Terrafy is a Kenyan startup taking on a structural problem that has long gone unaddressed: the near-total absence of reliable documentation for Africa’s rural land. The company’s ambition is to turn these parcels into financeable assets — and in doing so, break down the barriers that keep millions of small farmers locked out of credit, insurance, and climate finance.

A continent rich in land, starved of data 🗺️

The premise is simple, but the consequences are significant: a large share of Africa’s agricultural land remains unmapped and undigitized. Without reliable records, financial institutions have no way to assess the risk attached to any given plot — and the farmers who work that land are effectively shut out of loans, insurance products, and climate financing mechanisms. Terrafy’s core bet is that fixing the data layer is the key to fixing everything else.

A digital passport for every plot 📄🛰️

To get there, the startup has built an integrated digital platform combining field data collection, geospatial intelligence, and verification processes. The result is what Terrafy calls a « digital passport » — a certified, reliable record assigned to each parcel. According to the company, this approach has reportedly already been applied to over 20,000 parcels in Kenya, helping unlock thousands of loans and insurance policies that were previously out of reach.

A modular, purpose-built tech stack ⚙️

Terrafy’s architecture is made up of several complementary modules, each designed to meet a specific need within the financial and climate sectors. TerraVal uses AI to assess land value, while TerraCarbon connects farmers to carbon markets. The platform also integrates IoT-based field monitoring tools and parametric insurance solutions that can automatically trigger payouts the moment a climate event is detected — with no human intervention required.

Infrastructure layer, not a fintech 🏦

Unlike traditional agri-fintechs that target farmers directly, Terrafy positions itself as a trusted infrastructure layer for banks, insurers, and climate finance actors. That distinction matters: rather than competing with existing financial institutions, Terrafy integrates into their current workflows — making it easier to extend financial services to rural communities they currently struggle to reach.

Giving rural land a financial identity 🌾

At its core, Terrafy is pursuing something bigger than land mapping: full institutional recognition for Africa’s rural land. By making these parcels legible and assessable to the financial system, the startup is laying the groundwork for large-scale financial inclusion — potentially reaching millions of smallholder farmers across the continent.

What if the missing key to financial inclusion in rural Africa isn’t more capital — but better data? We’d love to hear what you think.