In 2018, farmer Oghenetega Iortim was losing up to 70 percent of his yield due to lack of adequate cold storage. He wanted to create a solution for his own use and for other African farmers, who often have poor power supply and limited funds. He started work on a portable cold-storage system, creating prototypes in clay and testing their viability. But clay is heavy and its efficiency is dependent on relative humidity.

Oghenetega went back to the drawing board and considered how other products also need cold storage and how it’s important to maintain temperatures in transport. The end result is Gricd’s cold boxes, which contain a cooling device fitted with location-monitoring technology and a battery that lasts about forty-eight hours. Available in 15-liter and 50-liter sizes, they can maintain a stable internal temperature as low as negative twenty degrees Celsius (negative four degrees Fahrenheit) for up to twenty-four hours.

Gricd now works with logistics companies to move temperature-sensitive goods including vaccines, medication and perishable foods. Clients can monitor their products through a mobile app that allows them to control the temperature along the delivery route. Oghenetega is working on scaling his product to create a larger, more cost-effective model and says that he chose to base his company in Lagos because it’s a hub for tech startups.

Oghenetega started Gricd with his own personal finances. Since then, the company has received funding from angel investors, qualified for grants from Facebook and is in the process of raising seed capital. In 2019, the startup won Africa Fintech Foundry’s startup pitch competition and received $10,000.