GroSpace is the online farmers marketplace. We have online specialised agencies and affiliates that actively market and sell products. As a farmer you focus on production and we focus on investment, marketing and sales.
Farmers sell their products on GroSpace to willing buyers. GroSpace is a platform much like Facebook that connects people.
GroSpace acts as a third party by facilitating transactions like purchasing, selling and contracting whereas Facebook allows people to interact directly.
The issue with direct contact opens transactions to advise on Facebook like theft, scamming and many other issues.
GroSpace performs due diligence before forming contracts and withholds delivery until payment reflects in the escrow account.
Only after delivery is the payment made to the farmer. However in certain contracted cases, payment is made in advance. In such cases the deal is underwritten with insurance. Some farmers are reluctant to change but we seldom work with these farmers.
GroSpace provides vendors with a GroShop and access to market. Vendors do not need any coding experience. Vendors simply register for an account and their online shop is built for them. Vendors can take payments online. Vendors can focus on farming. Vendors can sit back and relax knowing that their stock and their funds are safe.
GroSpace drop shippers(sales agents) market and sell products into the open market.
Buyers use GroSpace as a secure platform to place orders and make payment.
GroSpace receives pre-packed products at their nearest cold store. GroSpace can also collect directly from the farmer.
Customers pay in advance into GroSpace when their order is placed using their order number as a reference. The funds are placed into escrow until delivery is made. Payment notification is sent to payments@grospace.co.za
In special cases, certain transactions can attract negotiated terms such as “Cash on Delivery” and delayed payment from 7 days.
A legal concept describing a financial agreement whereby an asset or money is help by a third party on behalf of two other parties that are in the process of completing a transaction. GroSpace acts as the escrow agent which holds funds before they are transferred from the buyer to the seller.
Funds are automatically allocated to the farmer’s GroWallet when an order is completed on the farmer’s GroShop.
Commission is split and paid to the drop shipper and to GroSpace. The balance of the transaction is paid to the farmer’s GroWallet.
The farmer or his/her admin clerk can request a withdrawal using a withdrawal button within their GroWallet.
Payment is made to the vendor’s bank account using the banking details entered by their admin clerk on their vendor profile within GroSpace.
The banking details are loaded onto the farmers GroSpace vendor profile.
Payment reflects into the farmer’s bank account within 48 hours after a withdrawal request.
Liability for quality rests on the vendor. GroSpace will refund your purchase and/or replace the stock at the cost of the vendor.
This is an example of a farmer’s perspective when joining GroSpace.
A farmer that sells R200k worth of produce on the JHB market loses 15.5% in commission on vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and aubergine. I know this because this is one of my clients. They spend R31 000 monthly on marketing costs because of the 15.5%. What we offered them was R7899 at 9% which costs them R25899. This is one of the reasons why they moved across to GroSpace. Another reason is that we sell their goods from their farm at a higher rate than the market. They deliver the goods on a route instead of dumping at the market and hoping that the market get them a good rate. We sell directly to hospitality, households and retail.
The small scale farmer who isn’t making any money yet will think that R7899 is a lot of money because they aren’t making any money yet. They will wonder why they aren’t selling any of their goods as well because you can’t sell anything unless you market the product.
Ask yourself this question: would you rather pay 15.5% or 9%.
This is the GroSpace workflow. Every transaction through the farmer’s GroShop is recorded in the sales report that is automatically generated on GroSpace. This gives the farmer an excellent oversight of his/her sales.
This is an example of a small scale chicken farmer’s report.
GroSpace takes the Farmers’ Market Online and connects farm to fork. We turn your space into a GroSpace. Our upcycled farming technology yields 15x more than standard agriculture practices. How? Vertiponical hydroponics and the GroTower.
Mission
The GroSpace marketplace provides for a safe and secure environment for vendors to transact online. We build sustainable businesses through community and save the world through a multitude of sustainable activities that repair the damage caused by our forefathers. We would like to help ordinary people become more sustainable through sustainable farming practices.
Function
GroSpace is an agri-Tech startup focusing on providing a platform for vendors to sell their products online. GroSpace also invests into research and development for agriculture – GroSpace offers a robust and secure eCommerce marketplace platform built to connect farmers to buyers through our Online Farmers Market. GroSpace provides solutions to real-world problems.
Sustainable goals
- Alleviate poverty through job creation
- Zero Hunger through sustainable agriculture
- Improve health and wellness through healthy eating
- Improve education and literacy through training
- Create gender equality through equal opportuity
- Clean water and sanitation through water harvesting, purification through organic carbon filter, desalination and sanitation with the GroLoo.
How to trade on GroSpace
You will need to register and fund a trading account otherwise your orders won’t be taken seriously.
Two problems that we address:
Time wasters that want to talk and scammers.
GroSpace holds your funds and you can seamlessly transact immediately booking futures and current stock. No time wasting around lengthy negotiations and no scammers or confidence artists. Every trader is vetted through a due diligence process.
All off market trades can stay off market and negotiations around third party trading is not protected by GroSpace.
Core Solutions
- Water and sanitation(GroWater + GroLoo)
- Food Security(GroTower + GroBed + GroCanal)
- Education(GroSchool)
- Agriculture(GroSpace Partner Program)
- Air purification + Reforestry(GroTrees)
- Upcycling(GroUp)
Why was GroSpace started? – Why it all started?
Introduction
GroSpace was started to give farmers of all sizes access to the market. Roland A. Claven founded GroSpace when he was exposed to some of the criminal activity on the Tshwane market during the ginger rush of 2021.
His response was simple: build the online farmers’ marketplace platform to secure transactions in the future for all farmers. GroSpace realised that their friends and family had many underutilised gardens and they decided to build a solution to aid homeowners. The GroTower was developed.
Summary
- Open the farmers market to small to large farmers
- Alleviate the carbon footprint of transporting goods
- Secure transactions
Benefits
- Anyone can farm
- Urban farmers have access to market
- Lower carbon footprint
- Safe business
How does GroSpace work? – How it all works?
Introduction
GroSpace is the online Farmers Market. Farmers register their online GroShops with zero coding. GroSpace performs marketing activities to attract willing customers to purchase from the marketplace. GroSpace sets up urban gardens in urban yards to lower the travel time and storage of fresh produce. Urban farms minimise the carbon footprint from farm to fork. GroSpace urban gardens empower homeowners to earn a passive income from under-utilised land, drive food security and tackle the issue of sustainable development through job creation. GroSpace works with small to large scale farmers who sell their products online through he GroSpace marketplace.
Summary
- Food Security
- Job Creation
- Education and training
Benefits
- Food is always available
- Healthy eating
- Job satisfaction
- More free time
- Get educated
- Build a sustainable business
What is GroSpace? – What we do?
Introduction
GroSpace is the Online Farmers Market. GroSpace gives every farmer access to market through futures contracts and online sales and marketing. Farmers can sell their produce before they plant through the futures contracts escrow system.
GroSpace – the Online Farmers Market – from farm to fork
Summary
- Train future farmers
- Save the Planet
- Drive sustainability
Benefits
- Happy planet
- Less work in the field
- Sustainability
GroMoney – Instant transactions
GroMoney is a digital payment gateway. GroMoney allows people and businesses to transact safely online.
Use case 1:
A family in the city wants to secure their future through sustainable farming because mom and dad heard about GroSpace through their church. Mom and dad decide to order a GroTower to start their farming activities. Mom and Dad want to grow spinach. They order spinach seeds from GroSpace to plant into their GroTower and everything arrives at their door 7 days later. Spinach takes 6 weeks to grow to first harvest. During this time Mom and Dad register for a GroShop where they load their spinach as a product for sale. Customers come onto the platform and purchase the spinach. For this transaction to take place, GroMoney – a payment gateway – like a bank holds the payment in escrow until the goods are delivered. Once the goods are delivered GroMoney transfers money into the holding account of Mom and Dad where they earn interest on their balance as long as the money is in their account.
Use case 2:
A rural community of 500 families without water and electricity need to start farming to feed their community. The elders from the community hear from the local government official that there is a farming initiative called GroSpace with a farm-in-a-box solution that is 100% off-grid and requires very low maintenance called the GroTower. The elders decide that each household in the community should start growing different crops. There is a computer and a connection to the internet in the local library and at the government offices.
The elders task 10 of the youth in the community to join the GroSpace training program where they learn how to start a GroShop for their family. The youths are trained in Digital Marketing and they start to sell products that their community is growing in a city nearby. Transactions are secured by GroMoney – escrow.
Once per week a GroSpace pickup vehicle arrives and collects the produce that was sold online and delivers the stock to the customer. When the stock is collected the funds are transferred from escrow into the account of each member in the community that made a sale. The balance of funds in the account are used to purchase inputs for the next planting season. A seed pack is delivered every 100 days with new seed stock.
GroSpace in a nutshell
- GroSpace does not buy/sell however GroSpace offers futures contracts for investors that purchase your harvest before you plant
- GroSpace is a market for vendors to buy/sell safely online
- GroSpace flags and blocks scammers and puts out content for our patrons to become aware of scammer activity
- GroSpace is based online which means that the distribution centres are not open to the public for security reasons
- GroSpace does not hold livestock – farmers and traders hold their own livestock
- GroSpace facilitates secure transactions and charges a commission for this service
- GroSpace uses a digital escrow service for digital purchase contracts