Tunisian AgTech startup Lifeye launched an innovative solution to help farmers in Africa increase their livestock and milk production. The solution was quickly adopted in several countries on the continent.  It is an app (MooMe) downloadable for free on Google play store and Huawei AppGallery.

MooMe was designed in 2019 by three entrepreneurs who wanted to address recurrent problems of cattle farming in Tunisia, such as poor fertility and difficulty in detecting early diseases. The services built into the app will help users better monitor cow calving and fertility, and have full control over their animals, including troublemakers. "The most important thing for a breeder is to know when to do artificial insemination. This data allows us to alert him in advance," explained Ahmed Achballah, one of MooMe’s founders and a graduate in applied sciences.

According to Mohamed Kallel, also co-founder of MooMe, the platform offers accurate data and enables the farmer to quickly detect when something is going wrong with his cattle. The app is linked to a connected cow collar, which is equipped with a small sensor that analyzes the level of rumination and movements to identify diseases such as mastitis or lameness. The collar also helps evaluate the animal's fertility period. MooMe collects data via boxes that are installed in the cowsheds. Once collected, the information is translated into algorithms and spreadsheets that are sent back to the startup's headquarters in Tunis, where the platform to which farmers have access is located.

The connected cow collar is sold for TND200 (€62) with monthly subscription bundles. It was tested on farms in the northwest of Tunisia and provided great results. Lifeye claims 2,500 cows registered in its database and more than 1,500 users in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Senegal, in addition to Tunisia. The company has secured financing, last year, from Maxula Seed Fund to improve its app.

Muriel Edjo