We are happy to introduce to you today Joseph-Olivier Biley, C.E.O. and Founder of WeFly Agri, a start-up from Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
1. First of all, can you introduce yourself to our readers, who you are, where you come from and what’s your background.
My name is Joseph-Olivier BILEY, I am dual Ivorian and French. I am driven by innovation and challenges. I got a double Bachelor in Marketing & Finance at INSEEC Bachelor (Paris-London-Chicago) and a Master in Management (Startups major) with merits A+ in San Francisco, after being selected among the most promising entrepreneurs from INSEEC Group, which is the biggest French private school. I also got an executive Certificate in Venture Capital from WHU (One of the Best Business School in Germany).
In 2017, I have been selected among the 20 ChangeMakersXChange West Africa by Ashoka & Robert Bosh Stiftung.
As you can notice, I have no background in agriculture, but that helped me think outside the box and stand against the statu quo.
2. What is your startup and where is it located?
My startup is WeFly Agri and it is located in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
From Tech In Africa. Story
3. What is the problem you are addressing and what is your solution?
WeFly Agri is the multi awarded Ivorian startup that provides user-friendly, drone-enabled technologies and services developed exclusively for agriculture. Agriculture is key in Africa. We decide to create a revolution in that sector thinking outside the box and provide concrete solutions to real problems in order to make change.
A couple years ago, my father took me with him on a surprise visit to one of his rubber plantation. After driving for hours, we arrived at destination. However, what we found was flabbergasting: the employees had been using the fertilizers and other supplies given to them by my father to start a plantation of their own, on my father’s property. This made me realize that I could never manage plantations the same way than my father did. I needed visibility, transparency, control and … digital. This particular breach of trust made me think: what if my father could monitor his plantation remotely? At the time, I was already reading about UAVs. I connected the dots, and this is how we startup WeFly Agri: UAVs + Softwares + Apps and a wonderful team.
Our land owners do not have time to go on their lands on a regular basis so they suffer from a lack of transparency and visibiliy from their employees.
So we give them eyes in the sky to remotely monitor their lands and their employees in the comfort of their home, office, …. Their location and their device is not a limit anymore.
Thanks to WeFly Agri, they regain control over their lands.
We decided to impact their production to impact the entire value chain
