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Ujama Inc.

Soko is the Farmers’ Market App, spreading the goodness of farmers’ markets to the world.

Last Funded December 2022

$69,050

raised from 55 investors

Highlights

1
Farmers' markets are popular and growing (grew by 63% from 1994 to 2000)
2
The 8,600 farmers' markets in the US make $1.5B annual revenue and host 150K vendors.
3
Farmers' markets largely operate without the benefit of modern eCommerce and CRM tools.
4
Soko helps farmers' markets and the people that sell there thrive and grow.

Our Team

Hugh spent most of his career developing solutions for small businesses and is passionate about helping them thrive and grow. The success of many e-commerce ventures usually comes at the expense of the little guy. With Soko, we aim to buck that trend by empowering local farmers and producers with technology that will fuel their success.

Pitch

Soko is available today and is helping bring farmers markets into the 21st century.

Download the free app today.

What's not to love about farmers markets? They bring us locally-sourced fresh and healthy food. They are also small business incubators and happy gathering places for the community.

Farmers markets are seeing a steady increase in popularity as they expand into more urban centers, connecting city dwellers with the fresh, farm-raised products. These markets have created a $1.5 Billion industry as the demand for healthier food options rises.

However, farmers markets largely operate the way they have for decades and haven't taken advantage of new advancements in technology that could improve the experience of sellers and shoppers.

Farmers markets currently fail to keep up with the modern world: oftentimes sellers only accept cash, limiting their consumers to whatever they currently have in their wallets. The sellers also fail to expand on their customer relationships outside of the market, and have not breached the E-commerce space.

Processing SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) payments are particularly onerous where customers on food assistance must line up at the market manager table to swipe their SNAP card and obtain physical tokens to use at the market.

Soko is changing all of that! With Soko, you can discover local markets, keep up to date with your favorite vendors to see where they'll be and what they're bringing, pre-order items so you never miss out on a seller's specialty, and even pay by card!

Soko is also making SNAP payments dramatically easier. Watch this video to learn how.

Soko provides an easy, no-contact payment solution that eliminates credit card fees for the sellers.

SNAP payments are seamlessly integrated. Customers no longer need to line up for tokens!

Vendors can now maintain a dialogue with their customers outside of the market, and get them excited about what they're bringing next week!

Soko delivers the e-commerce options that customers have become accustomed to having  especially after the pandemic.

There are thousands of farmers markets nationally, with a combined $1.5B of consumer spending (and growing).

Forward-looking projections are not guaranteed.

As we grow, we will adopt new revenue models.

We plan to target our users through social media, working specifically to capture the mind share by making 'Soko" synonymous with farmers' markets. We will begin with hosting SF Bay Area vendors and markets, and then scaling towards farmer's market associations nationally, with our SNAP payments as our "special sauce."

We're already hearing great things from our users and partners!

We plan to raise $107K in order to implement our product roadmap and pursue vendor and farmers' market association partnerships.

In 2022, we plan to host 1K vendors and be present at 20 farmers' markets. (not guaranteed)

Hugh Molotsi has 20+ years in software development, specifically with payment systems.

Overview