Babafemi Adewumi

Babafemi Adewumi

Partnership & Business Development Lead at Crop2Cash Ltd
Ibadan, Nigeria

Mentorship Connection

Benefits

Four meetings per month

Unlimited chat, email, or text within boundaries.

Usually responds in about 3 days

About

Three years ago, I met a young founder with a brilliant idea for connecting smallholder farmers to markets via mobile technology. Great idea. Wrong execution. She was building a smartphone app for farmers who barely had feature phones. Within two mentoring sessions, we pivoted to USSD. Today, her platform serves 15,000 farmers.

That’s why I mentor. Not to hand out generic advice, but to share what 10+ years of building and breaking things in African agriculture has taught me.

I’ve scaled Crop2Cash to 400,000+ farmers across Nigeria while securing $1.5M in partnerships with USAID and GSMA. Before that, at Wennovation Hub, I managed the Campus2Market program, reducing local brain drain by 40% by helping entrepreneurs build viable businesses in Nigeria rather than migrating abroad. I’ve seen the patterns of what works and what doesn’t when serving low-income customers in resource-constrained environments.

WHAT I BRING TO MENTORING:

Hard-Won Expertise in AgriTech
• Designed programs that increased farmer productivity by 40% and incomes by similar margins
• Deep understanding of agricultural value chains from input supply to market linkages
• Climate resilience strategies that work in real drought conditions, not just pitch decks

Business Model & Fundraising Realism
• Built business models that balance impact and revenue (the unicorn entrepreneurs chase)
• Secured grant funding and commercial partnerships from skeptical donors and corporates
• Know which investor expectations are reasonable and which will kill your business

Practical Impact Measurement
• Designed M&E frameworks for IFPRI and development partners
• Can help you measure and communicate impact without drowning in indicators

I’m especially drawn to founders in agritech, climate adaptation, fintech for agriculture, and last-mile logistics who are past the idea stage and wrestling with scale challenges. I work best with entrepreneurs willing to challenge their assumptions and test rigorously.

Mentor type

Spoken languages

EnglishHausaYoruba

Mentorship motivation

  • I am looking for new investments
  • I like to learn about industries and new businesses
  • I want to give back to the startup ecosystem and entrepreneurs coming up
  • I want to make new connections for myself and/or the organization I represent
  • I want to scout for new opportunities in engaging as an advisor or for a board seat

I see mentorship as a vital tool for multiplying knowledge and accelerating the development of solutions to Africa’s pressing challenges in agriculture, climate resilience, and poverty reduction.