How SeedCo Unified Cybersecurity Across 23 African Markets to Protect Africa's Food Supply

For more than 85 years, SeedCo has helped strengthen food security across Africa. The company develops and produces certified seed varieties that farmers depend on to grow crops across the continent. Decades of research, breeding programs, and proprietary genetics form the foundation of that work: intellectual property that cannot be replaced if lost or compromised.

"If we get breached, it's basically a total failure," said Mpho Musenwa, Group CIO at SeedCo. "We lose our blueprint, the secret sauce."

Protecting this IP had become increasingly challenging as cyber threats grew more sophisticated. Adding to the challenge, SeedCo was working to modernize its business by bringing together operations that had evolved independently across dozens of African markets.

To protect its most valuable information while modernizing operations across Africa, SeedCo needed a cybersecurity platform that could evolve alongside the business.

When Musenwa joined SeedCo in 2024, security looked very different across the organization. Business units relied on different endpoint security products. Policies varied between regions, visibility was fragmented, and security teams lacked a consolidated view of what was happening across the environment.

"We were running different technologies, so we couldn't get a single view of our security posture," Musenwa said. "We didn't know what we didn't know."

That complexity created operational challenges for a four-person security team responsible for supporting users across 23 African markets. Many employees spend extended periods working in remote agricultural locations, often disconnected from the corporate network. This made consistent endpoint protection far more challenging than in a traditional office environment.

Rather than continue managing multiple legacy tools, SeedCo decided to consolidate on a single cybersecurity platform capable of supporting its current and future needs. Following a proof of concept and competitive evaluation, the company selected the AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon® cybersecurity platform.

"We needed a leader," Musenwa said. "SeedCo is a leader in seed breeding, so we needed a partner at the same level."

For Musenwa, one of the biggest changes came immediately after deployment. "Right away, we got a single view of all our endpoints in the environment.”

Opening the Falcon dashboard revealed a level of visibility SeedCo never had before. For the first time, the team could identify managed and unmanaged devices, unsupported operating systems, noncompliant assets, software inventory, and suspicious activity from a single console spanning the organization.

"It's almost night and day," Musenwa said. "Before CrowdStrike, we were operating mostly in the dark. Now we know about managed devices, unmanaged devices, devices that aren't compliant … even things like printers and access points."

This visibility extends across the company’s highly distributed environment. Even when endpoints spend extended periods disconnected from the corporate network, the Falcon platform delivers comprehensive protection.

Visibility alone wasn't enough. CrowdStrike's regional managed detection and response partner, Integrity360, uses the Falcon platform to surface actionable security data in real time, which enables the team to quickly investigate and respond to threats without manually sifting through thousands of events.

During one weekend, CrowdStrike identified unauthorized third-party software running at one of SeedCo's business units. Integrity360 immediately notified SeedCo's team, allowing the issue to be investigated and resolved before it could become a larger problem.

In one memorable example, Musenwa received a CrowdStrike security notification while attending a CrowdStrike event. "The team was able to respond to that incident immediately,” he said.

For a security organization of just four people, these capabilities provide confidence that previously wasn't possible. "I can rest assured knowing that I have a solution that monitors my environment 24/7," Musenwa said. "It also gives me confidence when I report to the board."

For Musenwa, deploying endpoint detection and response (EDR) was the first step in a broader cybersecurity maturity journey. He deliberately chose a platform that could evolve alongside the business.

As SeedCo expands its use of AI, the company sees opportunities to accelerate years of seed research, help scientists develop stronger and more resilient crop varieties faster, and ultimately strengthen food security across Africa. Before embracing that future, however, SeedCo wanted confidence that both its operating environment and the data behind its research were secure.

"Our approach was to secure our environment first," Musenwa said. "The second phase is to secure the data."

This strategy gives SeedCo the confidence to embrace new technologies while protecting the decades of research that set it apart. For Musenwa, cybersecurity is no longer simply about defending systems. It's about safeguarding the innovation that will help feed Africa for generations to come.

"If you want to be the best, you need to work with the best," he concluded.