Ehiopian born Sara Menker is the founder and CEO of Gro Intelligence, a technology company that is bridging data gaps across the global agriculture sector, empowering decision makers and creating a more informed, connected, efficient and productive global agricultural industry.
This tech company merges the application of machine learning with domain expertise and enables users to understand and predict global food and agriculture markets.
Having experienced her country’s famine and rationing of food first hand, Sara quit a career in commodities trading to figure out how the global value chain of agriculture works. Her discoveries have led to some startling predictions.
- That in a decade people could starve and governments may fall.
- That there wouldn’t be enough food to feed the planet by 2027 and the world could be short by 214 trillion calories per year.
These discoveries, motivated the creation of the GRO Intelligence software company focusing specifically on food markets around the world and making agricultural data complex analysis simple and accessible.
Gro Intelligence currently provides individuals, governments and businesses insights into agriculture, tracking data from weather patterns to pricing dynamics. Sarah has proffered solutions to avert the looming global crisis based on her predictions, they include:
- Reforming the agricultural industries in Africa and India by changing how farmers farm, how people buy and consume food.
- Decrease food waste, improve infrastructure, increase farm yields and the importance of data to inform and influence decision making process.
According to her, “Africa can help meet the world’s growing demand for food.”
Sara holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics and African Studies from Mount Holyoke College and the London School of Economics, an M.B.A. from Columbia University. She is a 2015 Quatrtz Africa Innovator, a trustee of the Mandela Institute For Development Studies (MINDS) and a trustee of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).
She was named a Global Young Leader by the World Economic Forum and is a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative of the Aspen Institute.
