Denis Opudo
Launched in 2014, KinoSol is a food-tech startup that works on how to feed the world as the population keeps on increasing. Founded by students and alums of Iowa State University the startup developed a dehydrator for fruits, vegetables, and grains. The group developed the idea of KinoSol while taking part in the Thought for Food Challenge. In January 2017, the startup started delivering its first product the Orenda to various parts of the world.
Orenda is a food dehydrator powered by solar that is inbuilt with a storage component. The product was developed to help in food and nutrients preservation by families in developing countries. A single Orenda has a potential of adding up to 36,000 calories every year. It helps to save 950 kilograms of food from going at a waste. It empowers families with an income generating resource increasing family income by roughly 15% every year.
Rebecca Lyons from KinoSol said that since the manufacture of the first batch of Orendas, the startup had made changes to their operations. This has helped them to improve their reach and impact the lives of people. The startup is now in a position to manufacture larger batches of Orendas by using injection molding. This has forced them to move from retailer to a wholesale company. The dehydrators will be sold out at wholesale to distributors who can maximize on their wide international reach and possible microfinancing programs to deliver the units to farmers. In the past, the startup’s sales model used to contact churches, NGOs and aids organizations that could implement the Orendas in the countries where they were carrying out development work.
The company has now shifted their focus to partners that have distributors in countries with East Africa being their first area of focus before moving globally. The development is because the startup is now scaling for more manufacturing.
The startup is requested for donations as from 1st June, and that will go up to 31st August. People are requested to donate at least $13 that will give a family a chance to own a solar food dehydrator. The donor will also stand a chance to win a fully paid trip to Tanzania with the team from KinoSol to take part in community training, cultural immersion and great travel experience. Six weeks after the launch of the campaign the company has managed to impact around 1,000 lives with a target of 6,000 by the 31st August. Lyons added that the 1,000 units make it financially feasible to work on the order and ship the units to Africa to change lives there. The move will give many people a chance to access the technology, better access to food security and give them an income generating tool. People are encouraged to donate to this initiative.
