Overview:

• Within 12 months of implementing the strategy, our client had conducted successful field trials with 160 cooperatives.

Challenge:

A startup foliar fertiliser company based in Europe approached Challenge Advisory to help in the development of a justification for Series-B funding for their organisation in order to develop a global distribution network.

The Revelation:

The strategy functional practice team, in conjunction with the agriculture industry practice team, sought out Challenge Advisory partners in agricultural investment to gain an understanding of what made a strong value proposition. Armed with this information, the combined teams set out to showcase the client’s global potential by discovering two markets with highly contrasting customs – India and Canada – taking note of potential customers, distributors, regulatory obstacles, competitors, buying culture and traditional trade terms. The intent was to discover two untapped market opportunities that the client could expand into.

The team built and interviewed a database of prospective channel partners. Through this work, they garnered invaluable knowledge on the buying habits of consumers of agrochemical inputs. They also gained vital knowledge on education, market-size as well as a true understanding of what the market was lacking. This work was augmented and confirmed by market sizing and market analysis. Once the data capture stage was complete, the team developed a market analysis and business plan strategy that delivered over and above on the client’s ultimate goal of achieving country-wide distribution.

The analysis also highlighted a number of unmet needs in the targeted markets, such has the potential to serve the higher-value segment of biofertilisers. This gives the company a focused area to deliver its value proposition to distributors and farmers. Focusing on foliar fertilisers would also bypass the highly complicated and bureaucratic process of achieving regulatory approval. In the process of researching the client, the team also discovered results indicating the client’s brand lacked distinction, and that this could significantly hinder any market entry strategy. This came as
a surprise to the client, who responded by adopting a new strategy designed to achieve audience development within their chosen markets.

Outcomes:

Within 12 months of implementing the strategy, our client had conducted successful field trials with 160 cooperatives in different parts of the two targeted countries. They have agreements for distribution across three provinces in Canada and three states in India. 6 months into rolling out the strategy, the venture capitalist invested 8 million USD into the organisation.