Ntuthuko Shezi’s moonshot idea of crowd-farming cows—which he first presented at TEDxJohannesburg 2015—has grown legs. From a base of 26 cows back then, his stock has grown to a total of 1200 cows in 2018. In short, he has devised a clever way in which multiple individuals can remotely and digitally co-own a single cow. In other words, complete strangers, anywhere in the world, can be shareholders in a cow in Africa. Remarkably, this model has turned his company—aptly named Livestock Wealth—into potentially the biggest producer of organic beef in South Africa. Furthermore, Ntuthuko’s model can be extended beyond the stock, to the farm itself. In this way, Ntuthuko and Livestock Wealth intend to get more people to participate in farming, each according to their means.
Ntuthuko Shezi has always enjoyed creating things. After graduating from the University of Cape Town with an engineering degree, he found himself at Accenture, the global consultancy. He proceeded to rise rapidly through the ranks. When the inevitable entrepreneurship bug bit, he duly embarked on a journey to dream up businesses, build them and then sell them. His latest idea uses technology and crowdfunding to unlock the full investment value of cows. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx