In a country where agriculture employs more than 40% of the workforce, agritech startups are increasingly delivering weather, pest and market intelligence at scale. The piece argues that many first-generation digital advisory systems struggled because recommendations were often too generic or disconnected from local realities, limiting on-farm impact and behavioural adoption.

AI-driven models are now being used to personalise advisory around local weather conditions, crop cycles and farmer-specific needs. Digital Green’s Farmer.Chat platform, reaches around 7 million farmers across India and Africa, with approximately 60% of users reportedly taking action based on recommendations received through the platform. The article also highlights the World Economic Forum-backed Saagu Baagu initiative in Telangana, which uses AI and data-driven advisory to support chilli farmers through more localised recommendations.

Image credit: Digital Green

The piece argues that AI’s greatest contribution may not be making advisory more localised and relevant, but fundamentally changing the economics of agricultural extension. According to Digital Green, traditional extension services cost around $35 per farmer, compared to roughly $3.5 for video-based advisory, while GenAI-powered systems could reduce costs to as little as $0.35 per farmer.

At the same time, inclusion remains a challenge. Women account for approximately 45% of Farmer.Chat users, yet barriers around smartphone access, digital literacy, and participation in agricultural decision-making continue to limit adoption. The article warns that without stronger coordination between agritech platforms, public digital infrastructure, and government-led inclusion efforts, AI could reinforce rather than reduce existing inequalities.

Photo credit: Yabiladi.com

The funding will be allocated across several Africa-owned venture capital funds investing in sectors including fintech, healthtech, logistics, climate technologies, and agritech. While the announcement is not agriculture-specific, it represents an important signal for agritech startups in the region, where fundraising conditions remain challenging. Among the selected funds is Future Africa Fund III. Future Africa’s broader investment track record includes agriculture-related ventures such as ThriveAgric and Farmcrowdy.

For agritech, the announcement is less about immediate funding and more about who controls the flow of capital. As African institutions take a larger role in financing local innovation, they may also play a greater role in shaping which technologies, business models, and startups receive support. More broadly, AFC’s initiative reflects an effort to deepen local ownership within Africa’s innovation ecosystem and reduce dependence on external sources of venture capital.

Anthropic commits $200M to Gates Foundation, backs AI tools for farmers

Anthropic has committed USD 200 million in a mix of grant funding, Claude usage credits, and technical support to the Gates Foundation. The plan is to make AI tools more accessible and useful, while supporting the development of public goods, freely available resources, across health, education, and agriculture.

While the partnership is primarily aimed at improving health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, it also includes a dedicated agriculture component. This will support agri-specific enhancements to Claude, the development of local crop datasets, and the creation of benchmarks to evaluate AI performance across agricultural applications, with the resulting tools made available as public goods.

Ultimately, the goal is to lay the foundations for more intelligent and accessible agricultural advisory services. Leveraging locally relevant data and local languages, AI can deliver personalized, real-time guidance on planting decisions, soil health, crop diseases, livestock management, and market conditions. By lowering the cost and complexity of delivering this support at scale, the partnership could help strengthen decision-making for farmers, extension workers, financial institutions, and public agencies that serve them.

Just yesterday, Anthropic announced it raised USD 65 billion in its latest funding round (Series H) reaching an evaluation of USD 965 billion, making it leapfrog its arch-rival OpenAI as the to become world’s most valuable AI firm.

Why it matters

As public and donor funding for rural development comes under increasing pressure, Anthropic’s commitment highlights the growing role of private tech companies in supporting agricultural innovation. Importantly, the initiative focuses not on a single product or startup, but on developing shared AI capabilities, datasets and benchmarks that can underpin a new wave of agricultural advisory and decision-support services.

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20/05/26

ONO raises pre-Series A funding to digitise agri trade and embedded finance in India

Indian agritech startup ONO has raised USD 1.2 million pre-Series A round to expand its platform focused on digitising agricultural trade workflows and embedded finance for agri-SMEs and mandi (middlemen) ecosystems.

The company digitises operational processes across traditional agricultural markets, including mandi transactions, collections, and supply chain coordination, while using transaction-level data to support AI-driven underwriting and collateral-free working capital. Its user base spans farmers, traders, commission agents, and agri-SMEs operating across India’s fragmented agricultural supply chains.

Image credit: ONO

ONO is building digital infrastructure for agricultural commerce. Through products such as ONO Connect, which provides market information and price discovery, and ONO Cash, which offers working capital and farmer loans, the platform connects market participants while embedding finance into day-to-day agricultural transactions. The new funding will support the expansion of digital mandi operations, supply chain connectivity, and data-driven financial services.

Why it matters

While many agritechs focused on smallholder farmers operate through advisory, input distribution or marketplace models, ONO digitises the underlying trade and financial infrastructure surrounding agricultural value chains. As mandi ecosystems become more digitised and financeable, the resulting improvements in liquidity, collections, market coordination and working capital access can indirectly strengthen the broader smallholder ecosystem connected to them.

21/05/26

AFC and Hello Tractor partner on warehouse receipt finance in Kenya

Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) has formalised a partnership with agritech platform Hello Tractor to scale a Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) finance product in Kenya, in collaboration with Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Warehouse Receipt System Council (WRSC).

The initiative combines warehouse storage and agricultural lending to enable smallholder farmers to access financing using stored crops as collateral. Under the model, farmers store produce in certified warehouses and receive warehouse receipts that can be used to secure short-term loans, helping reduce distress sales immediately after harvest.

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AFC will provide agricultural financing, while Hello Tractor will leverage its network of booking agents and farmer relationships to support onboarding and loan distribution at the local level. FSD Kenya and IFC are supporting de-risking and ecosystem development around warehouse receipt financing.

The partnership also comes as Kenya expands its electronic Warehouse Receipt System Central Registry eWRS-CR (see story on ArisTechia), part of a broader effort to digitise warehouse receipts and strengthen their use as collateral within agricultural finance and structured commodity trade.

According to AFC and FSD Kenya data, post-harvest losses among Kenyan smallholder farmers can reach 30–40% of production.

Why it matters

Hello Tractor is a unique example of a startup building momentum around mechanisation platforms on the continent, with more than 6,000 connected tractors across Africa. While previous initiatives such as its PAYG mechanisation financing programme in Ethiopia expanded access to equipment financing, the AFC partnership signals a broader move into post-harvest infrastructure and warehouse receipt finance, reinforcing Hello Tractor’s evolution into a wider agricultural infrastructure and finance platform.

18/05/26

Analysis: AFC’s $100M commitment signals a growing role for African capital in agritech

The Africa Finance Corporation, a multilateral finance institution established to catalyse private sector-led infrastructure investment across the region, has approved a USD 100 million commitment to Africa-focused technology fund managers, marking a push to increase the role of local institutional capital in the continent’s innovation ecosystem. In doing so, AFC aims to address the underrepresentation of African capital in venture funding and catalyse greater participation from local institutional investors.

Photo credit: Yabiladi.com

The funding will be allocated across several Africa-owned venture capital funds investing in sectors including fintech, healthtech, logistics, climate technologies, and agritech. While the announcement is not agriculture-specific, it represents an important signal for agritech startups in the region, where fundraising conditions remain challenging. Among the selected funds is Future Africa Fund III. Future Africa’s broader investment track record includes agriculture-related ventures such as ThriveAgric and Farmcrowdy.

For agritech, the announcement is less about immediate funding and more about who controls the flow of capital. As African institutions take a larger role in financing local innovation, they may also play a greater role in shaping which technologies, business models, and startups receive support. More broadly, AFC’s initiative reflects an effort to deepen local ownership within Africa’s innovation ecosystem and reduce dependence on external sources of venture capital.

16/05/26

Good Reads: AI may determine whether digital advisory finally works for smallholder farmers

A recent article by Digital Green CEO Nidhi Bhasin explores how India’s next phase of digital agriculture will depend less on scaling generic advisory platforms and more on leveraging AI to deliver contextual and actionable support for smallholder farmers.

In a country where agriculture employs more than 40% of the workforce, agritech startups are increasingly delivering weather, pest and market intelligence at scale. The piece argues that many first-generation digital advisory systems struggled because recommendations were often too generic or disconnected from local realities, limiting on-farm impact and behavioural adoption.

AI-driven models are now being used to personalise advisory around local weather conditions, crop cycles and farmer-specific needs. Digital Green’s Farmer.Chat platform, reaches around 7 million farmers across India and Africa, with approximately 60% of users reportedly taking action based on recommendations received through the platform. The article also highlights the World Economic Forum-backed Saagu Baagu initiative in Telangana, which uses AI and data-driven advisory to support chilli farmers through more localised recommendations.

The piece argues that AI’s greatest contribution may not be making advisory more localised and relevant, but fundamentally changing the economics of agricultural extension. According to Digital Green, traditional extension services cost around $35 per farmer, compared to roughly $3.5 for video-based advisory, while GenAI-powered systems could reduce costs to as little as $0.35 per farmer.

At the same time, inclusion remains a challenge. Women account for approximately 45% of Farmer.Chat users, yet barriers around smartphone access, digital literacy, and participation in agricultural decision-making continue to limit adoption. The article warns that without stronger coordination between agritech platforms, public digital infrastructure, and government-led inclusion efforts, AI could reinforce rather than reduce existing inequalities.

The report provides a data-driven snapshot of how early-stage capital is shaping Africa’s innovation ecosystem and finds that both angel networks and individual investors continue to maintain largely sector-agnostic portfolios. However, impact-oriented sectors, and agritech in particular, are increasingly emerging as preferred investment areas, reflecting growing interest in ventures that combine commercial potential with measurable development outcomes.

This shift is also driving the creation of more specialised investment communities. One example is the Climate Smart Agriculture Network established by ABAN, designed to strengthen investor expertise and improve support for early-stage startups operating in agriculture and climate-related sectors.

The report also highlights the expanding role of smaller early-stage transactions. While funding rounds between USD 1 million and USD 20 million continue to represent a substantial share of deployed capital, deals below USD 1 million have grown steadily since 2019. These smaller transactions are often driven by individual angel investors and angel networks willing to back higher-risk opportunities at earlier stages, frequently working alongside venture capital funds, accelerators, incubators and venture studios to help build the next generation of African startups.

The findings suggest that digital advisory delivered through familiar channels such as WhatsApp, alongside AI-enabled financial inclusion models, offers one of the clearest pathways for investment and scale. Digital farm management and agri e-commerce platforms also create value, particularly around farmgate pricing and market forecasting, although standalone apps and web interfaces continue to face adoption barriers linked to trust and usability.

Image credit: GSMA Mobile for Development

The report also highlights emerging opportunities in carbon monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), product traceability, increasingly driven by European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requirements, and drone-enabled precision agriculture. However, weak data infrastructure, limited institutional support and high capital requirements continue to constrain adoption, with investment needs often exceeding what startups and smallholder ecosystems can absorb without external financing.

Indonesia’s agritech ecosystem remains highly active, with startups, academia and public-sector initiatives continuing to experiment with digital agriculture models. Companies including Elevarm, Eratani, Pandawa Agri, JALA, Banyu and Rize, many with AI-enabled offerings, have recently attracted investment.

Smallholder farmers account for an estimated 25.6 million households, representing 90% of Indonesia’s 28.4 million agricultural households, while agriculture contributes around 14% of national GDP.

Apollo Agriculture and Kaleidofin mark breakthrough in smallholder agritech finance

Apollo Agriculture, an agri-fintech operating in Kenya and other African markets, and fintech Kaleidofin have completed Kenya’s first private-sector local-currency securitisation in smallholder agriculture. This is a financing structure that bundles thousands of smallholder farmer loans into an investable product for external investors, denominated in Kenyan shillings rather than foreign currency.

The initiative has mobilised KES 276 million (approximately USD 2.1 million) in financing across a portfolio of 23,839 smallholder farmers, 51% of whom are women and 22% first-time borrowers. It is backed by the IDH Farmfit Fund as anchor investor. Supporting partners include FSD Africa, the MOBILIST programme, and British International Investment (BII), which provided technical assistance to Apollo Agriculture through BII Plus.

Photo credit: Apollo Agriculture

The transaction was enabled through Kaleidofin’s financing platform, which uses AI-driven risk analysis and farmer data to help structure and assess agricultural loan portfolios. The financing was provided in Kenyan shillings rather than dollars, helping protect farmers from currency fluctuations that can increase repayment costs.

The deal is the first step in a multi-year securitisation programme eventually targeting KES 2.37 billion (USD 18.3 million) in mobilised financing and more than 130,000 farmers over time. Interestingly, Pan-African Rating Agency Agusto & Co assigned an investment-grade BBB rating to the issuance, marking an important milestone in demonstrating the creditworthiness of smallholder agriculture as an asset class.

Apollo is one of the agritech “scaleups” in Africa. Established in 2016, the company has served over 400,000 farmers. To date, Apollo has raised a total of approximately USD 67.8 million across multiple funding rounds.

Why it matters

This is a one-of-a-kind example in Africa of an agritech scaleup now working with partners to convert smallholder farmer loans into a rated investment product for external investors. It presents a new pathway for scaling inclusive smallholder finance through technology-driven risk analysis, backed by deep agricultural value-chain expertise with investor confidence.

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13/05/26

FarmRise hits 5 million users as Bayer scales phygital agriculture

A recent article by The Economic Times of India highlights the latest milestones in Bayer’s digital agriculture strategy, with its FarmRise app now reaching more than 5 million registered farmers across India. The app brings together agronomy advice, local weather updates, mandi (middleman) prices, government schemes and crop-specific content through a platform available in more than nine Indian languages, designed for accessibility and ease of use.

The app embeds an AI chatbot launched in 2025 that provides instant responses to crop- and farm-related queries in simple language. Its anti-counterfeit scanning capability has recorded more than 10 million scans, allowing farmers to verify product authenticity directly through the app. In addition, Bayer leverages a tool called Alivio to deliver plot-level insights and weather risk protection for farmers.

At the centre of Bayer’s strategy is its “phygital” Direct2Farmer (D2F) ecosystem, combining digital services with on-the-ground engagement. The model includes FarmRise One, a marketplace integrated with field operations that supports more than 500 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and over 200,000 farmers, connecting users to agricultural inputs, credit services and market access opportunities. The approach reflects a broader agritech shift where scale increasingly depends on combining digital capabilities with trusted field networks.

FarmRise One Ecosystem

Image credit: Bayer AG

Why it matters

FarmRise reinforces the growing importance of “phygital” models, where digital tools and field engagement work together to drive adoption at scale. It also raises an important question: how will large private-sector ecosystems coexist with emerging national agricultural digital public infrastructure (Agri-DPI) initiatives?

Wadhwani AI expands into agroforestry with new AI partnership in India

Indian nonprofit Wadhwani AI has signed an MoU with India’s Central Agroforestry Research Institute (ICAR-CAFRI) to explore the use of AI for sustainable agroforestry across the country’s different agro-climatic zones. The partnership will focus on developing AI-powered tools to support monitoring, planning and field interventions related to agroforestry and natural resource management.

Photo credit: Wadhwani AI

The initiative expands Wadhwani AI’s agriculture portfolio beyond crop advisory and pest management into broader land and ecosystem management use cases. The organisation has previously developed specialised tools like CottonAce, an AI-powered pest detection solution for cotton farmers, and more recently AgriVaani, a multilingual advisory chatbot for farmers and extension workers. Across its agriculture solutions, Wadhwani AI reports reaching more than 1 million farmers, while its Krishi Saathi platform has resolved over 279,000 farmer queries across multiple states.

The move reflects a broader shift in agricultural AI, from farm-level productivity and advisory use cases toward applications supporting climate resilience, land management and ecosystem planning.

Why it matters

The announcement highlights the growing importance of AI tools focused on ecosystem management and climate resilience, expanding beyond traditional crop advisory use cases. It also reinforces the increasing role of locally trained AI systems embedded within research institutions and national agricultural ecosystems.

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13/05/26

VunaPay shares impact figures after 3 years of operations

VunaPay, a Kenyan agritech-fintech focused on cooperative digitisation and farmer payments, has shared new impact figures as it marks three years of operations. The company says it has onboarded 197 agricultural cooperatives, impacted more than 130,000 smallholder farmers and accelerated over KES 1.3 billion (approximately USD 10 million) in payouts since launch.

The figures highlight momentum around embedded fintech infrastructure models in African agriculture, particularly those focused on digitising cooperative operations and accelerating farmer payments. Delayed payouts and inefficient cooperative processes remain major operational challenges across many agricultural value chains in Africa, directly affecting farmer liquidity and cash flow.

Why it matters

VunaPay’s trajectory highlights the growing importance of embedded fintech in African agriculture. As agritech matures, some of the strongest scaling opportunities are increasingly around payments, liquidity and cooperative digitisation.

11/05/26

Good Reads: GSMA identifies AI use cases with potential to scale among Indonesia’s farmers

A new GSMA report examines how AI is improving agricultural advisory services, financial inclusion and market access for smallholder farmers in Indonesia. Based on 200 interviews and field testing across Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Aceh and Bali, the study identifies three AI applications combining the strongest impact potential with near-term scalability: conversational agricultural advisory, AI-enabled alternative credit scoring and AI-driven price prediction and market intelligence.

The findings suggest that digital advisory delivered through familiar channels such as WhatsApp, alongside AI-enabled financial inclusion models, offers one of the clearest pathways for investment and scale. Digital farm management and agri e-commerce platforms also create value, particularly around farmgate pricing and market forecasting, although standalone apps and web interfaces continue to face adoption barriers linked to trust and usability.

Image credit: GSMA Mobile for Development

The report also highlights emerging opportunities in carbon monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), product traceability, increasingly driven by European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requirements, and drone-enabled precision agriculture. However, weak data infrastructure, limited institutional support and high capital requirements continue to constrain adoption, with investment needs often exceeding what startups and smallholder ecosystems can absorb without external financing.

Indonesia’s agritech ecosystem remains highly active, with startups, academia and public-sector initiatives continuing to experiment with digital agriculture models. Companies including Elevarm, Eratani, Pandawa Agri, JALA, Banyu and Rize, many with AI-enabled offerings, have recently attracted investment.

Smallholder farmers account for an estimated 25.6 million households, representing 90% of Indonesia’s 28.4 million agricultural households, while agriculture contributes around 14% of national GDP.

12/05/26

Good Reads: AgriTech a leading focus for Africa’s angel investors, new ABAN survey finds

The new 2025 Angel Investment Survey Report published by the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) in partnership with market intelligence firm Briter Intelligence highlights agriculture and agritech as increasingly prominent investment priorities across Africa’s early-stage funding landscape. Agritech ranks as the top sector choice for angel networks (20%) and the second most popular for individual angel investors (13%).

The report provides a data-driven snapshot of how early-stage capital is shaping Africa’s innovation ecosystem and finds that both angel networks and individual investors continue to maintain largely sector-agnostic portfolios. However, impact-oriented sectors, and agritech in particular, are increasingly emerging as preferred investment areas, reflecting growing interest in ventures that combine commercial potential with measurable development outcomes.

This shift is also driving the creation of more specialised investment communities. One example is the Climate Smart Agriculture Network established by ABAN, designed to strengthen investor expertise and improve support for early-stage startups operating in agriculture and climate-related sectors.

The report also highlights the expanding role of smaller early-stage transactions. While funding rounds between USD 1 million and USD 20 million continue to represent a substantial share of deployed capital, deals below USD 1 million have grown steadily since 2019. These smaller transactions are often driven by individual angel investors and angel networks willing to back higher-risk opportunities at earlier stages, frequently working alongside venture capital funds, accelerators, incubators and venture studios to help build the next generation of African startups.

In Ghana, Vitara partnered with MTN Ghana to integrate the telco’s mobile money service MoMo API into its TreeSyt platform, enabling real-time payments between buyers, agents and smallholder shea farmers alongside financial literacy training and rollout of mobile wallets.

Image credit: AdomOnline.com

The report highlights that through the partnership Vitara was able to support digital payments, savings and offer microloans for women farmers who make up for 90% of the suppliers. Through the partnership 54,000 additional users were onboarded.

In Pakistan, Crop2X partnered with Telenor Pakistan to deliver satellite-based crop advisory services via SMS, allowing farmers to access recommendations without standalone apps. The partnership helped Crop2X more than triple its user base within months, while giving Telenor a data-driven agricultural service to strengthen engagement across its rural customer base.

Founded in 2020, Vitara digitises shea sourcing through agent-enabled farmer registration, transaction capture and traceability for international buyers, and is backed by impact investor Acumen. Founded in 2021, Crop2X provides remote-sensing-based insights on crop health, soil conditions and yield optimisation delivered through mobile interfaces. Both startups are former grantees of the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation 2.0.

Why it matters:

Several mobile operators globally, from Telenor to Safaricom to Dialog Axiata, have long delivered agricultural value-added services to rural customers, either directly or through partnerships with agritech providers. While there is no single recipe for success, the benefits of these collaborations are increasingly evident. This new evidence helps strengthen the case for operators seeking to grow their rural customer base and loyalty through deeper engagement in agritech services.

Bangladesh’s iFarmer raises $1.5M to scale input distribution and market access

Bangladesh-based agritech iFarmer has secured USD 1.5 million in foreign funding from Symbiotics, a Switzerland-based platform for impact investment. The financing will help cover day-to-day operating costs, allowing the company to expand distribution of agricultural inputs and strengthen farmers’ access to markets across Bangladesh.

Established in 2019, iFarmer is a full-stack agriculture startup enabling smallholders to access agricultural inputs, financing, advisory services and markets through an integrated digital model. As previously reported by ArisTechia, in 2024 iFarmer received investment from UK-based VC firm Razor Capital. The startup leverages several partnerships with financial service providers in Bangladesh to provide financial amd insurance services to farmers.

Photo credit: iFarmer

The company has expanded its digital tools in recent years. Its main farmer-facing solution is the Folon app, which provides personalised crop advice, connects farmers with agricultural experts, and gives access to loans. iFarmer also offers a dedicated retailer app that helps input dealers manage supply and orders, as well as an Investor app that connects funders directly to agricultural production cycles. The company leverages a network of more than 1,200 iFarmer Centers to provide services and digital support and onboarding through partnerships with agri-input retailers and traders that act as local service points for farmers.

Agriculture remains central to Bangladesh’s economy, representing an estimated USD 52 billion sector and employing around 40% of the national labour force. The country has roughly 20 million farmers, about 80% of whom are smallholders.

Why it matters
International investment into Bangladeshi agritech remains relatively limited, making Symbiotics’ backing of iFarmer an encouraging signal for the sector. Alongside earlier financing rounds involving Agroshift (USD 1.8 million pre-seed), WeGro (USD 2.8 million seed) and Fashol (USD 1 million pre-seed), the deal suggests gradually increasing external confidence in digital services supporting agricultural distribution, sourcing and finance for Bangladesh’s smallholder farming economy.

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22/04/26

Kenya’s SokoFresh gets $500K to grow Cooling-as-a-Service model

Kenyan agritech company SokoFresh has secured KES 65 million (USD 500,000) in the form of a low-interest loan in local currency from the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) under the Food Systems Innovation Finance Facility, backed by the Bayer Foundation.

The four-year financing will support expansion of its solar-powered cold storage and aggregation services, addressing the key challenge of post-harvest losses for smallholder farmers across horticulture and staple crop value chains. SokoFresh aims to reach 5,000 smallholders per year, contributing to a projected 10% increase in farmer incomes according to a note from Bayer Foundation.

The startup operates under a so-called Cooling-as-a-Service model whereby farmers store produce in mobile solar-powered cold rooms and pay per kilogram per day, lowering the barrier compared with owning refrigeration. At the back end, the company operates a digital market-linkage platform that aggregates volumes and connects farmers with exporters, supermarkets, and wholesalers.

Photo credit: SokoFresh, SNV

Farmers typically access the service through nearby aggregation hubs and field agents, with coordination supported through SMS, enabling storage scheduling, delivery coordination, and participation in structured supply chains without requiring smartphone apps.

Why it matters
It is encouraging to see investment targeting first-mile cold-chain infrastructure, where refrigeration gaps continue to drive post-harvest losses across many markets. Looking ahead, models like SokoFresh (see other story about AkoFresh) could further strengthen their digital layer through deeper mobile-money integration, while also enabling downstream services such as traceability and warehouse-receipt finance.

29/04/26

India’s Prithu raises $1.2M to scale soil carbon MRV for smallholders

India-based climatetech agritech Prithu has raised USD 1.2 million in a seed funding round led by early stage investor Transition VC. The funding will be used to expand its farmer network across additional farming regions in India, strengthen its blockchain-based monitoring platform, and secure international buyers for the carbon credits it generates.

Founded in 2024, Prithu operates a full-stack carbon removal platform focused on nature-based solutions. . The company builds measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems that track how farming practices store carbon in soils and turn these results into verified carbon credits.

Photo credit: Prithu

Its solution combines satellite data, soil measurements, and digital monitoring tools to estimate soil organic carbon at farm level and help smallholder farmers participate in emerging carbon markets.

Why it matters
The investment reflects growing momentum around soil carbon MRV infrastructure in India, where Prithu works alongside climate techs like Boomitra and Varaha, which are already working with large numbers of smallholder farmers and issuing carbon credits. While these models have moved beyond pilot projects, the long-term scalability of soil carbon markets remains uncertain, particularly questions remain around measurement accuracy, how long carbon stays stored in soils, and stable demand from buyers.

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29/04/26

Ghana’s AkoFresh launches mobile cold storage trailer to reduce post-harvest losses

Ghanaian agritech social enterprise AkoFresh has launched a mobile solar-powered cold storage trailer designed to bring cooling services directly to farmers in remote communities. The solution builds on the company’s off-grid cold storage model and aims to reduce spoilage at harvest, when losses are often highest.

According to the company, its solar cold storage systems can extend the shelf life of perishable produce from three to five days to up to 21 days, helping farmers improve prices and reduce waste. AkoFresh reports that its programmes have already reached more than 10,000 people, with farmer incomes increasing by up to 40% in some communities.

Why it matters
Mobile cold-chain solutions are emerging as a practical way to address one of the biggest constraints in African food systems: first-mile storage. Alongside models such as SokoFresh’s cooling-as-a-service platforms (see other story in this issue), solutions like AkoFresh’s suggest growing momentum behind distributed refrigeration infrastructure as a foundation for stronger market access and value-chain integration.

16/04/26

EAC and AGRA envision digital agriculture corridor for East Africa

The East African Community (EAC), a regional intergovernmental organisation, together with African agriculture development organisation AGRA, has launched an ambitious 10-year Regional Agri-Food Systems Investment Plan (RASIP) for 2026–2035. The USD 15 billion programme aims to strengthen food systems across a region of about 300 million people.

The USD 15 billion figure reflects a regional investment mobilisation target, with one key element of the plan being the creation of a regional corridor to improve farmers’ access to weather information, market prices, and advisory services across borders via mobile platforms.

The plan also includes cross-border agri-industrial parks, stronger seed systems, soil improvement programmes, and regional credit guarantees to attract private investment. It sets targets to reduce post-harvest losses from about 40% to 15%, increase regional agricultural trade by 50%, and support around 25 million farming households.

Rather than building separate national platforms, the corridor approach aims to connect advisory services, climate information, and market data across countries.

If implemented, this would represent one of the more ambitious attempts to develop shared regional digital infrastructure for agriculture in Africa, with similarities to emerging national approaches around agricultural digital public infrastructure (DPI). At the same time, translating regional coordination frameworks into operational cross-border services has historically proved difficult, and much will depend on implementation capacity at country level.

Why it matters

The shift from fragmented national pilots toward interoperable regional systems is a very welcome development. But the success of such corridor models will depend on whether they move beyond policy alignment to deliver shared data and infrastructure that farmers and service providers can actually use.

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15/04/26

Good reads: GSMA report highlights role of mobile operators as scaling partners for agritech platforms

A recent report from GSMA provides new details on how partnerships between mobile operators and agritech startups are supporting the expansion of digital value-chain infrastructure across emerging markets. The report features case studies about Vitara in Ghana and Crop2X in Pakistan, showing how these startups are leveraging mobile operator APIs, distribution channels and mobile-money rails to strengthen their value proposition and reach farmers in the last-mile at scale.

In Ghana, Vitara partnered with MTN Ghana to integrate the telco’s mobile money service MoMo API into its TreeSyt platform, enabling real-time payments between buyers, agents and smallholder shea farmers alongside financial literacy training and rollout of mobile wallets.

Image credit: AdomOnline.com

The report highlights that through the partnership Vitara was able to support digital payments, savings and offer microloans for women farmers who make up for 90% of the suppliers. Through the partnership 54,000 additional users were onboarded.

In Pakistan, Crop2X partnered with Telenor Pakistan to deliver satellite-based crop advisory services via SMS, allowing farmers to access recommendations without standalone apps. The partnership helped Crop2X more than triple its user base within months, while giving Telenor a data-driven agricultural service to strengthen engagement across its rural customer base.

Founded in 2020, Vitara digitises shea sourcing through agent-enabled farmer registration, transaction capture and traceability for international buyers, and is backed by impact investor Acumen. Founded in 2021, Crop2X provides remote-sensing-based insights on crop health, soil conditions and yield optimisation delivered through mobile interfaces. Both startups are former grantees of the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation 2.0.

Why it matters:
Several mobile operators globally, from Telenor to Safaricom to Dialog Axiata, have long delivered agricultural value-added services to rural customers, either directly or through partnerships with agritech providers. While there is no single recipe for success, the benefits of these collaborations are increasingly evident. This new evidence helps strengthen the case for operators seeking to grow their rural customer base and loyalty through deeper engagement in agritech services.

India’s Aquapulse raises $2.8M to scale aquaculture services for smallholder shrimp farmers

India-based Aquapulse has raised INR 250 million (about USD 2.8 million) in a Series A round led by NABVENTURES, the venture growth equity fund of NABARD (India’s National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), through the AgriSURE Fund. The funding will support expansion of its integrated aquaculture ecosystem across eastern India, scaling its farmer network from more than 6,000 to 15,000 producers across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, alongside investments in processing infrastructure and technology upgrades.

Image credit: Aquapulse

Aquapulse currently works with more than 6,000 shrimp farmers and plans to expand to 15,000 across eastern India. Its platform combines pond-level monitoring with grading, logistics and compliance systems, helping smallholder producers connect to export markets from which they are often structurally excluded.

Founded in 2022, the company provides water-quality monitoring, disease-risk alerts and feed optimisation tools at farm level while integrating post-harvest handling and traceability required for participation in export-oriented seafood supply chains.

Why it matters

The investment reflects growing interest in “pond-to-port” aquaculture models that connect smallholder producers with export markets and address fragmentation in India’s shrimp sector, where productivity, quality compliance and market access remain uneven.

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10/04/26

Wadhwani AI pilots AgriVaani multilingual advisory chatbot for farmers and extension workers

Indian nonprofit Wadhwani AI has started piloting a multilingual conversational chatbot, AgriVaani, designed to support both farmers and extension workers with locally grounded agricultural advice delivered via voice-enabled interfaces.

The pilot is currently underway in Indore and Lucknow using a train-the-trainer deployment model, in which partner organisations prepare field facilitators before rolling out the tool to farmers.

Photo credit: Wadhwani AI

AgriVaani provides voice-enabled, multilingual recommendations built on Indian datasets and expert knowledge systems. This reflects a broader shift in agricultural AI development away from generic chatbot architectures toward locally trained advisory systems aligned with national data ecosystems and crop-specific decision contexts.

The pilot builds on Wadhwani AI’s earlier agriculture portfolio, including pest and disease detection tools such as CropAce and advisory support systems like Krishi Saathi, which has already resolved more than 279,000 farmer queries through call-centre integration across multiple states. Across its agriculture solutions, the organisation reports reaching over one million farmers through AI-enabled advisory tools.

In 2023, Wadhwani AI received a USD 3.3 million grant from Google.org, the Big Tech’s philanthropic arm. The funding is part of a USD 25 million open call that Google.org launched for organisations using AI to accelerate progress on the SDGs.

Why it matters

Locally trained AI systems aligned with national data ecosystems offer a major opportunity to augment extension workers (rather than replacing them) and can strengthen farmer support at scale.

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10/04/26

Tanzania’s Kilimo Fresh joins Madica pre-seed cohort with up to $200K investment

Tanzania-based agritech startup Kilimo Freshhas secured up to USD 200,000 in pre-seed funding from Madica, an investment programme backed by early-stage investor Flourish Ventures, alongside participation in an 18-month founder support programme.

Kilimo Fresh aggregates fresh produce from smallholder farmers and supplies urban buyers through a technology-enabled distribution network that includes cleaning, sorting, packaging and delivery services. Kilimo Fresh plans to use the investment and support to enhance its software and AI-enabled systems that improve coordination and efficiency across fresh-produce value chains.

Photo credit: Kilimo Fresh

Founded in 2018, the company works to improve farmer market access while reducing post-harvest losses across fragmented horticulture value chains. The agritech claims to offer farmers prices that are 20% higher than those offered by middlemen.

The investment forms part of a USD 600,000 deployment across three African startups, with Kilimo Fresh selected alongside Kenya’s legaltech Hakimu and Nigeria’s health tech Biovana. Each company receives capital plus mentorship, executive coaching and exposure to Madica’s global investor network.

13/04/26

Ghana pilots parametric crop insurance under HAPPY programme with ignitia and WRMS Global

A parametric crop insurance pilot has been launched in Northern Ghana under the Harnessing Agricultural Productivity and Prosperity for Youth Programme (HAPPY) initiative, with non-profit TechnoServe working alongside weather forecasting company Ignitia and WRMS Global.

The pilot introduces index-based insurance designed to trigger payouts automatically when rainfall conditions fall outside predefined thresholds, reducing assessment delays common in conventional crop insurance schemes. Importantly, the inclusion of parametric insurance makes climate-risk protection integral to wider extension and value-chain support rather than a standalone service.

The initiative sits within the broader HAPPY programme, a four-year USD 61 million effort supported by Mastercard Foundation and implemented by partners including TechnoServe and Agri-Impact Limited to create 326,000 jobs for young people across poultry, rice, soybean and tomato value chains.

Why it matters

Parametric insurance rarely scales on its own. Evidence from Pula Advisors and OKO Finance shows uptake improves when bundled with inputs, advisory, or value-chain support. The HAPPY pilot follows this approach by embedding climate-risk protection within a broader agricultural programme.

13/04/26

SunCulture delivers parametric insurance payouts to PAYG irrigation farmers in Kenya

Kenya-based agritech SunCulture has completed the first payout cycle of its parametric climate insurance programme for farmers using its pay-as-you-go (PAYG) irrigation systems, marking an operational step in embedding climate risk protection directly into asset financing models.

Between October and December 2025, 1,738 farmers received automatic payouts totalling about USD 15,000 after drought conditions were confirmed using satellite data. Instead of requiring claims submissions, payouts were triggered automatically and applied to reduce farmers’ outstanding irrigation equipment loan balances, easing repayment pressure during the affected season.

Coverage expanded by 152% over the period, with drought triggers calibrated at constituency level to reflect local climate variability. The programme is implemented with Humanity Insured, APA Insurance and climate insurance specialist IBISA Network, with expansion to Uganda planned for 2026.

In September 2025, SunCulture received a USD 5 million investment from WaterEquity’s Water & Climate Resilience Fund, highlighting rising investor interest in irrigation as climate adaptation infrastructure.

The rollout highlights a broader shift from standalone parametric insurance products toward embedded climate-risk protection integrated into bundled irrigation, finance and advisory services for smallholder farmers.

Why it matters

Bundling parametric insurance with irrigation asset financing shows how climate-risk protection can support adoption of productive technologies while reducing repayment risk. This approach may offer a more scalable pathway than standalone crop insurance in smallholder farming systems.

02/04/26

Analysis: New report highlights widening gap between agritech potential and investment in South and Southeast Asia

A new report by consulting firm Beanstalk AgTech and market intelligence company Briter, supported by Rabo Foundation, International Finance Corporation, FMO and Omnivore, highlights a widening gap between agritech’s economic potential and current investment momentum across thirteen countries in South and Southeast Asia (excluding India).

While agritech adoption could generate more than USD 90 billion in additional annual GDP by 2033, investment across the region fell by nearly 70% between 2022 and 2025, reflecting investor uncertainty about which business models can scale sustainably despite continued demand for digital agriculture solutions.

The report finds that many early agritech ventures continue to face logistics complexity, thin margins and limited expansion opportunities across fragmented smallholder systems. It also identifies the main constraint at the Seed-to-Series A transition, where fewer companies progress to later funding rounds. Development finance institutions are therefore expected to remain central to early-stage market formation, with blended finance combining equity, credit and concessional capital continuing to underpin agritech investment.

The innovation gradient across regional ecosystems

Source: Beanstalk AgTech, Briter

Another key finding concerns the difficulty of regional scale-up. While in Africa commonalities in language, donor ecosystems and agricultural market structures are enabling a growing number of agritechs to expand across borders, South and Southeast Asia remain highly fragmented. Differences in policy regimes, value-chain structures and farm organisation mean that approaches successful in markets such as Vietnam or Indonesia often require substantial redesign before entering neighbouring countries. Scaling depends primarily on a high degree of country-specific adaptation rather than regional rollout strategies.

In terms of emerging opportunity areas, the report finds that investment is increasingly concentrating on traceability-driven digital value chains, embedded agricultural finance linked to procurement systems, and aquaculture.

While agritech adoption could generate more than USD 90 billion in additional annual GDP by 2033, investment across the region fell by nearly 70% between 2022 and 2025, reflecting investor uncertainty about which business models can scale sustainably despite continued demand for digital agriculture solutions.

The report finds that many early agritech ventures continue to face logistics complexity, thin margins and limited expansion opportunities across fragmented smallholder systems. It also identifies the main constraint at the Seed-to-Series A transition, where fewer companies progress to later funding rounds. Development finance institutions are therefore expected to remain central to early-stage market formation, with blended finance combining equity, credit and concessional capital continuing to underpin agritech investment.

The innovation gradient across regional ecosystems

Source: Beanstalk AgTech, Briter

Another key finding concerns the difficulty of regional scale-up. While in Africa commonalities in language, donor ecosystems and agricultural market structures are enabling a growing number of agritechs to expand across borders, South and Southeast Asia remain highly fragmented. Differences in policy regimes, value-chain structures and farm organisation mean that approaches successful in markets such as Vietnam or Indonesia often require substantial redesign before entering neighbouring countries. Scaling depends primarily on a high degree of country-specific adaptation rather than regional rollout strategies.

In terms of emerging opportunity areas, the report finds that investment is increasingly concentrating on traceability-driven digital value chains, embedded agricultural finance linked to procurement systems, and aquaculture.

Zambia launches national climate advisory service with support from TomorrowNow

Zambia has launched a national Digital Climate Advisory Service (DCAS), led by the Zambia Meteorological Department (ZMD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and partners including TomorrowNow, the non-profit climatetech originating from software company Tomorrow.io, and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO).

DCAS marks a shift from forecasts toward decision-oriented climate guidance supporting farm-level decisions such as planting timing, crop management and responses to increasingly variable rainfall. As of March 2026, more than 34,000 smallholder farmers are already receiving twice weekly advisories.

ZMD is leading development and delivery of the service, putting in place the data pipelines, delivery channels and partnerships needed to expand climate advisory support over time.

TomorrowNow is supporting this work by translating weather and agricultural data into decision ready guidance embedded within national systems. The company also leverages its partnership with Google.org, including integration of Google DeepMind’s WeatherNext models, to generate localised forecasts for farm level advisories.

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Why it matters: Another encouraging signal of collaboration between weather intelligence providers and national meteorological agencies to build local capacity and integrate climate advisory services into national delivery systems.

26/03/26

Kenya publishes draft policy to coordinate national digital agriculture infrastructure

Kenya has released a draft Agricultural Data, Information and Digital Policy under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development to strengthen coordination of agricultural data systems and digital service delivery across the sector.

Source: KADIC (LinkedIn video)

A central component of the framework is the proposed establishment of the Kenya Agricultural Digital Information Centre (KADIC), which would oversee sector data governance, coordinate digital agriculture programmes and support innovation across national and county governments.

The policy builds on the Kenya Integrated Agriculture Management Information System (KIAMIS), a national digital public infrastructure initiated in 2019 and formally handed over by the Food and Agriculture Organization to the Government of Kenya in November 2025. KIAMIS had registered more than 6.5 million farmers by mid-2025 and over 7.2 million by 2026, supporting delivery of input subsidy programmes as well as access to advisory services, markets and finance.

The draft framework proposes stronger interoperability between farmer registries, extension platforms, market information systems and geospatial monitoring tools, and encourages the use of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things sensors, drones and blockchain to support traceability, productivity and farm level decision making. It also places digital public infrastructure at the centre of efforts to integrate agricultural datasets held by public agencies, research institutions and private service providers.

Agriculture contributes around 22 percent of Kenya’s GDP and supports more than 70 percent of rural livelihoods.

Why it matters

The proposed creation of KADIC signals a shift toward institutional coordination of digital agriculture systems at national level, positioning farmer registries and advisory platforms as core components of agricultural digital public infrastructure.

31/03/26

IFC backs Ethiopia’s Lersha with $1M to scale agrifinance services

Ethiopian agritech Lersha has secured USD 1 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) through a convertible loan, its first institutional investment.

The funding will support the expansion of Lersha’s agrifinance model, enabling the company to scale bundled access to inputs, mechanisation and advisory services alongside seasonal credit for smallholders.

Convertible loans are typically structured as short-term debt that can later convert into equity, allowing investors to provide growth capital while retaining the option to participate in the company’s future upside.

Photo credit: Lersha

Founded in 2018, Lersha operates a phy-gital service platform that has reached more than 300,000 farmers and plans to expand its reach to one million by 2030. The company combines digital farmer profiling with agent-led service delivery and works with national partners, including the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) and the Ethiopian Agricultural Businesses Corporation (EABC), to support fertiliser recommendations, mechanisation access and integrated input distribution.

Why it matters: This investment is another signal of the shift in African agritech funding toward platforms that have finance at the core alongside inputs, mechanisation and advisory services. As highlighted by recent Briter analysis, companies integrating financial services account for over 60% of sector funding despite representing only about a quarter of firms. In Ethiopia, Lersha is emerging as a key enabler linking farmer profiling with credit, inputs and mechanisation delivery at scale.

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20/03/2026

India issues 91.7 million farmer IDs under Digital Agriculture Mission

India has generated more than 91.7 million farmer IDs under its Digital Agriculture Mission as of March 2026, marking continued rollout of AgriStack as a national digital public infrastructure for agriculture built on three foundational registries: geo-referenced village maps, crop sown registry and the farmers registry.

Approved in September 2024 with a budget of INR28.17 billion (approximately USD 298 million at current exchange rates), the mission is building interoperable registries linking farmers, crops and georeferenced village maps as a unified reference system supporting subsidy delivery, insurance and advisory services.

The Digital Crop Survey has already mapped more than 285 million agricultural plots across 604 districts during the Kharif 2025 season, strengthening visibility of cropping patterns for procurement planning, production estimates and input logistics.

The programme also includes the Krishi Decision Support System (Krishi DSS), which integrates satellite imagery, soil, crop and weather data into a national geospatial advisory platform, alongside a nationwide soil resource mapping effort covering 39.1 million hectares.

Why it matters

Following earlier policy approvals in 2024 and the Digital Agriculture Mission 2.0 roadmap released in 2025, the scale of farmer ID issuance and plot-level crop mapping suggests India’s agricultural data infrastructure is moving from strategy toward operational deployment at national scale.

30/03/26

AfDB commits $8.5M to Breega Africa Seed I fund targeting early-stage agritech startups

The African Development Bank Group has committed USD 8.5 million to the Breega Africa Seed I Fund, which invests in early-stage startups across sectors including agritech, climate tech, fintech and logistics.

The commitment includes USD 5.7 million in equity and USD 2.8 million in first-loss capital under the Boost Africa initiative, helping de-risk seed-stage investment across African markets.

The fund will invest pre-seed and seed tickets of USD 100,000 to USD 2 million across key markets such as Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa and Francophone Africa.

Why it matters
The investment highlights the growing role of development finance institutions in supporting early-stage agritech pipelines through venture funds, particularly as private capital for smallholder-focused agritech (“on-farm solutions”) continues to decline.

The study, which draws on data from the AgBase platform, shows that total investment fell to just under USD 170 million, down around 20% from USD 200 million in 2024, while the number of deals declined by about 10%.

The sharpest drop was in on-farm solutions targeting smallholder farmers. In contrast, pre-farm (e.g. inputs, biotech), post-farm (processing, storage, logistics) and retail segments (distribution and delivery) all saw increased funding.

Source: AgBase 2026

What this shows is that while most deals are still in on-farm solutions (around 50%), often backed by grants, most of the money is going elsewhere. Larger funding is flowing into logistics, aggregation, marketplaces and infrastructure models that can absorb bigger tickets. Much of this is driven by debt financing in production and transport, pointing to a shift toward more asset-heavy businesses with clearer, more predictable revenues.

The importance of embedding financial services

Around a quarter of agritech companies now embed financial services, including payments, credit, insurance and equipment leasing, into their core offering. While they represent roughly 25% of companies, they account for over 60% of total funding.

This reflects a broader shift: the main constraint to scaling agriculture in Africa is often not technology, but access to working capital and financial services. As a result, capital is moving toward models that integrate financing with operations, particularly in downstream segments such as marketplaces, aggregation and logistics.

Concentration remains, but geography is widening

Funding remains highly concentrated. Since 2016, just 12 companies (fewer than 2% of the total) have raised over USD 50 million each and captured more than half of all agritech funding. These are primarily based in Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria, with companies such as Apollo Agriculture and Pula among the most prominent.

At the same time, the geographic spread is evolving. Kenya’s share of funding fell from over 50% in 2023–24 to around 25% in 2025, with capital spreading to markets such as Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia.

Source: AgBase 2026

The winner does all dynamic

A small group of scale-ups continues to capture a disproportionate share of funding. Between 2016 and 2025, just 12 companies raising over USD 50 million accounted for more than half of total agritech investment, including players such as Pula, SunCulture, Twiga Foods and Apollo Agriculture.

These companies typically follow integrated models, combining inputs, logistics, marketplaces and fintech, and are increasingly positioned as finance- and infrastructure-led platforms rather than pure technology plays.

Outcomes, however, have been mixed. Capital alone has not guaranteed resilience: those that have endured built sustainable margins, controlled costs and aligned their capital structure with asset-heavy operations, while others expanded faster than their economics allowed.

AgBase is an initiative of Briter backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and implemented in partnership with Mercy Corps AgriFin.

Verdant Impact raises $3M to scale AI-driven livestock solution

Indian agritech startup Verdant Impact has raised USD3 million in seed funding led by VC Unicorn India Ventures, to scale its digital agriculture solution Pashu.AI, strengthen R&D and expand across new regions in the country.

Founded in 2020, Verdant Impact is an AI- and IoT-driven precision genetics company that builds integrated digital solutions for sustainable dairy systems. At the core of its model is Pashu.AI, which provides multilingual AI advisory for crop management, livestock care, disease detection and real-time market insights, available in more than 20 Indian languages.

Image credit: Verdant Impact

The platform enables farmers to monitor livestock health, improve breeding decisions and manage herds using real-time data, supported by IoT-enabled tools for continuous tracking. Verdant Impact reports having served over 600,000 farmers to date and is targeting approximately USD 12 million revenue by 2026.

Why it matters
Solutions like Pashu.AI go offer unique value because they go beyond basic advisory, supporting health diagnostics, nutrition management and breeding decisions through real-time data and AI models.

The fact that the platform operates in more than 20 Indian languages shows a focus on usability and farmer adoption. The key question is whether this level of scientific precision can consistently translate into trusted, yet simple and actionable on-farm dvisory at scale.

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14/03/26

WayCool raises $22.5M to strengthen supply chain and FMCG pivot

Indian agritech startup WayCool has raised INR2.1 billion (USD 22.5 million) from impact investor Lightrock, marking its first significant equity round in nearly four years.

Founded in 2015, WayCool operates a full-stack “soil-to-sale” platform, connecting over 85,000 farmers to retailers and institutional buyers. The company spans sourcing, distribution and food processing, and sells products under brands such as Madhuram and KitchenJi.

The funding comes after a period of restructuring, including layoffs and leadership changes. In FY23, WayCool reported revenue of around USD 150 million but loss were at around USD 82 million), highlighting the challenges of scaling supply chain-led agritech models.

In response, the company has been shifting toward higher-margin segments, particularly FMCG and branded products. The fresh capital is expected to support this transition, alongside strengthening its supply chain infrastructure.

Why it matters
WayCool’s latest funding reflects broader consolidation in India’s agritech sector, one of the most developed globally. Recent moves, including Arya.ag raising around USD 80 million, AgroStar securing USD 30 million, and the Unnati–Gramophone merger, point to a stronger focus on scale and more sustainable business models. In particular, WayCool’s pivot toward FMCG highlights a wider shift toward downstream, post-farm segments, where margins are higher and revenue streams more predictable.

17/03/26

Lersha and EABC target 1 million Ethiopian farmers with finance, inputs and mechanisation

Ethiopian agritech Lersha and the Ethiopian Agricultural Businesses Corporation (EABC), a federal government public enterprise, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at reaching 1 million smallholder farmers with access to finance, agricultural inputs and mechanisation services by 2030.

Image credit: Lersha

The partnership combines Lersha’s digital platform with EABC’s machinery and input supply network, enabling service delivery through integrated physical supply chains. It is aligned with national initiatives including the National Agri-Finance Implementation Roadmap (NAFIR), the Digital Agriculture Roadmap (2025–2032) and the National Mechanization Strategy.

Founded in 2018, Lersha uses a phy-gital model connecting 270,000+ smallholder farmers, and 250+ service providers, offering a marketplace for agricultural inputs, mechanization, access to finance, market linkage, agro-climate advisory and fertilizer recommendation through both online and offline solutions. For service delivery, the agritech leverages a network of 2,000+ agents, a call center (7860), and the Lersha digital platform.

Since March 2023, the company has worked with the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) to develop digital profiles for over one million farmers, enabling fertiliser recommendations and climate-informed advisory.

Why it matters
Ethiopia’s Digital Agriculture Roadmap (2025–2032) places credit and insurance at the centre of its scale-up strategy, but delivery has remained fragmented. By linking farmer data, input supply and mechanisation with financing, this partnership is a test of whether those ambitions can be operationalised into a functioning, end-to-end system at scale.

18/03/26

Ghana launches Timbuktoo AgriTech Hub to scale digital agriculture

Ghana has launched the Timbuktoo AgriTech Hub in Accra, backed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as part of a broader push to scale digital innovation in agriculture.

The hub is part of the Timbuktoo initiative, a USD 1 billion pan-African programme launched by UNDP in 2024 to support impact-driven, early-stage startups. It aims to mobilise public and private capital to create 10 million jobs and impact 100 million livelihoods, while addressing gaps such as limited early-stage funding, weak incubators and fragmented markets.

The initiative is being rolled out through eight hubs (Accra, Kigali, Lagos and Nairobi) supporting sectors such as fintech, healthtech and agritech. The Ghana hub focuses on agriculture, building on the country’s wider digital agriculture agenda.

The AgriTech Hub brings together partners including 500 Global and Seedstars, and targets challenges such as fragmented supply chains, limited finance and climate risks through mobile technologies, data-driven tools and AI. In practice, the hub will operate as both an innovation and financing platform, offering incubation, access to capital, pan-African networks and capacity-building support.

Why it matters
This reflects a shift from fragmented startup support toward more coordinated, continent-scale innovation platforms. As agritech funding becomes more constrained and innovation spreads across a wider set of markets (see below analysis article), there is a growing need for knowledge sharing, coordination and cross-continental collaboration, besides capital.

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05/03/26

Analysis - African agritech funding slows as capital shifts downstream and toward finance-led models

The new report State of Agtech Investment in Africa 2025 by Briter shows that both total funding and deal activity declined last year, the first such drop since tracking began. This contrasts with the broader African startup ecosystem, where funding and deal flow increased year-on-year, suggesting that agritech has stabilised at a lower baseline.

The study, which draws on data from the AgBase platform, shows that total investment fell to just under USD 170 million, down around 20% from USD 200 million in 2024, while the number of deals declined by about 10%.

The sharpest drop was in on-farm solutions targeting smallholder farmers. In contrast, pre-farm (e.g. inputs, biotech), post-farm (processing, storage, logistics) and retail segments (distribution and delivery) all saw increased funding.

Source: AgBase 2026

What this shows is that while most deals are still in on-farm solutions (around 50%), often backed by grants, most of the money is going elsewhere. Larger funding is flowing into logistics, aggregation, marketplaces and infrastructure models that can absorb bigger tickets. Much of this is driven by debt financing in production and transport, pointing to a shift toward more asset-heavy businesses with clearer, more predictable revenues.

The importance of embedding financial services

Around a quarter of agritech companies now embed financial services, including payments, credit, insurance and equipment leasing, into their core offering. While they represent roughly 25% of companies, they account for over 60% of total funding.

This reflects a broader shift: the main constraint to scaling agriculture in Africa is often not technology, but access to working capital and financial services. As a result, capital is moving toward models that integrate financing with operations, particularly in downstream segments such as marketplaces, aggregation and logistics.

Concentration remains, but geography is widening

Funding remains highly concentrated. Since 2016, just 12 companies (fewer than 2% of the total) have raised over USD 50 million each and captured more than half of all agritech funding. These are primarily based in Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria, with companies such as Apollo Agriculture and Pula among the most prominent.

At the same time, the geographic spread is evolving. Kenya’s share of funding fell from over 50% in 2023–24 to around 25% in 2025, with capital spreading to markets such as Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia.

Source: AgBase 2026

The winner does all dynamic

A small group of scale-ups continues to capture a disproportionate share of funding. Between 2016 and 2025, just 12 companies raising over USD 50 million accounted for more than half of total agritech investment, including players such as Pula, SunCulture, Twiga Foods and Apollo Agriculture.

These companies typically follow integrated models, combining inputs, logistics, marketplaces and fintech, and are increasingly positioned as finance- and infrastructure-led platforms rather than pure technology plays.

Outcomes, however, have been mixed. Capital alone has not guaranteed resilience: those that have endured built sustainable margins, controlled costs and aligned their capital structure with asset-heavy operations, while others expanded faster than their economics allowed.

AgBase is an initiative of Briter backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and implemented in partnership with Mercy Corps AgriFin.

19/03/26

Good reads - FAO examines the state of insurtech in agriculture

A new FAO report Leveraging digital innovation to promote agricultural insurance among small-scale farmers highlights how digital technologies are beginning to transform one of the most underdeveloped segments of rural finance: agricultural insurance.

Despite its importance for climate resilience, coverage remains extremely low. Only around 19% of smallholders globally are insured, with penetration in sub-Saharan Africa below 3%. High costs, weak data systems and limited distribution have long made these products difficult to scale.

The report argues that digital technologies are starting to address these structural constraints, but unevenly. Mobile platforms have already played a key role in reducing distribution costs and enabling bundled models, where insurance is offered alongside inputs, credit or advisory. In Kenya, for example, platforms like DigiFarm integrate insurance from providers such as Pula and ACRE Africa into broader service ecosystems.

Recent tech innovation is focused on data and risk modelling. Satellite imagery, drones and telecom data (e.g. commercial microwave links, or CMLs, which use mobile network signals to measure rainfall) are improving loss assessment and generating more granular weather data, while AI is enhancing risk profiling and pricing.

There are also early examples of farmer-generated data. Picture-based insurance pilots allow farmers to upload images of their fields via mobile apps, improving loss verification and reducing basis risk.

Together, these advances are making agricultural insurance more accurate and affordable. However, scale remains limited. Most models still rely on bundling, partnerships and subsidies, and are concentrated in markets with stronger digital ecosystems like East Africa.

The result is a familiar pattern: strong innovation at the edges, but limited system-wide scale. Closing the insurance gap will require not just better technology, but stronger integration across finance, distribution and public systems.

At stake is not only the future of digital agriculture, but control over what I call the “intelligence layer” of agriculture: the data systems, AI models and algorithms that increasingly guide farming decisions.

As agriculture becomes more data-driven, the actors who control this intelligence layer will shape what crops are grown, how inputs are used and how farming risks are managed.

A structural shift is underway in agriculture. Historically, power in agricultural value chains was concentrated in three places: input suppliers, traders and food processors. Today, a new layer is emerging above them: digital systems that analyse agricultural data and generate recommendations for farmers. This intelligence layer is becoming a critical point of influence in farming systems.

The article references the recent report “Head in the Cloud” by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). The report warns of a “top-down” approach to farming systems in which Big Tech and Big Ag companies increasingly provide farmers with AI-driven decision tools. Supported by both public and private investment, these systems risk effectively outsourcing farmers’ decisions to distant algorithms, with limited accountability.

Examples include digital farm-management platforms that combine satellite and field data to generate recommendations on planting or input use, as well as cloud-based AI systems that guide decisions on crops and farm management.

Image credit: IPES-Food

The risks of farming by algorithm

Consider a farmer in Ethiopia. A digital agriculture tool trained on global datasets may have little or no knowledge of teff, Ethiopia’s most widely consumed grain. Instead, it might recommend crops such as corn, for which extensive global data and agronomic models already exist, often linked to fertilisers and pesticides. In practice, such tools are likely to guide farmers toward crops and practices that reflect global datasets and supply chains rather than local agricultural realities.

This emerging model of “farming by algorithm” risks overlooking local knowledge, crops, and community-based innovation systems. There is a long-standing lesson in digital agriculture: good solutions must build on local knowledge and farming practices, not replace them.

As AI-driven agriculture expands globally through private-sector platforms and Big Tech–Big Ag alliances, questions arise about how these models will shape farming systems, particularly in low-resource LMIC contexts.

Models trained on global datasets can easily embed bias, and the risk of failing to support locally appropriate farming decisions is significant. At the same time, innovations rooted in local knowledge systems often remain undervalued and underfunded compared with large-scale, globally designed technology solutions.

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Building the local data railways for grounded digital agriculture

In this context, the public sector is stepping in to lay the railways of localised and shareable data. The idea is to create national layers of publicly available agricultural data (covering soils, crops, weather and farming systems) that can serve as a shared foundation for AI models powering digital agriculture tools, from startups to research institutions.

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) for agriculture has emerged with the promise of building tools grounded in local realities. Agricultural DPI initiatives are now appearing across multiple countries, with very advanced examples in India, but also in places like Ethiopia, and more emerging initiatives elsewhere such as Côte d’Ivoire.

DPI is not just a technical architecture, it is also a governance tool intended to ensure that the intelligence layer of digital agriculture remains grounded in local ecosystems rather than dictated by global platforms, an approach that increasingly mirrors wider efforts by governments to build sovereign data infrastructures for AI.

The question is how these two major trends, global Big Tech–Big Ag coalitions and locally led agricultural DPIs designed to support innovation grounded in local data, will coexist.

Who controls the intelligence layer?

Global AI models, often trained on a relatively narrow set of crops and production systems, could increasingly shape farming decisions across very different contexts. Whether these systems will meaningfully engage with emerging public agricultural data infrastructures, and under what incentives, remains uncertain.

The IPES-Food report takes a strong stance on the role of Big Tech and large agribusiness firms. Ultimately, however, the debate it raises is less about technology than about power: who controls the intelligence layer of digital agriculture.

Agricultural DPIs may offer countries a pathway to anchor agricultural intelligence in more open and locally grounded data ecosystems. But the existence of a DPI alone does not guarantee that global technology or agribusiness firms will align with these frameworks. Even when they do engage, their scale and resources may give them disproportionate influence over how these systems evolve.

At the same time, most countries are still at a very early stage in building agricultural DPIs. Progress is emerging, but this knowledge infrastructure will take time to reach meaningful scale.

The key question for the coming decade is therefore not simply who builds the most advanced digital tools for farmers. Innovation will come from many directions: Big Techs, agribusinesses and local agritech startups alike.

The deeper question is who governs the intelligence layer on which these tools depend. In other words, who sets the rules, standards and data infrastructures that shape how agricultural knowledge is generated and applied.

In the end, the future of digital agriculture may depend less on who builds the algorithms, and more on who governs the systems that feed them.

TomorrowNow and Google.org back AI-powered weather intelligence in Africa

TomorrowNow, the non-profit climatetech originating from software company Tomorrow.io, has secured USD 1 million in support from Google.org, Google’s charitable foundation, to scale AI-powered actionable agro-meteorological advisories for smallholder farmers across Africa. The funding supports integration of advanced weather forecasting models, expansion of validation infrastructure, and strengthened farmer-centred impact measurement with local delivery institutions.

TomorrowNow will integrate WeatherNext models developed by Google DeepMind into its digital advisory system, the Global Access Platform. These AI-based models process atmospheric data to generate detailed, location-specific forecasts several days ahead. The platform translates these forecasts into practical farming guidance, including planting windows, crop protection timing and preparation for heavy rainfall.

With this support, TomorrowNow will also expand the Gold Standard Validation Network, a growing network of high-quality weather stations across East and Southern Africa that continuously measures model performance in the agro-ecological conditions where farmers operate. Expanding across Kenya, Zambia and Malawi, the network compares forecast outputs with observed conditions to test accuracy and refine advisories.

A further component of the initiative is the strengthening of farmer-impact measurement systems in partnership with Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, Zambia Meteorological Department and One Acre Fund to assess forecast accuracy, advisory uptake and farmer response under increasing rainfall variability.

TomorrowNow reports reaching more than 6 million farmers across Kenya, Malawi and Zambia, with 98% confirming receipt of weather advisories and 72% reporting that they acted on the guidance.

Why it matters
AI-based weather models are improving the resolution and speed of short-term forecasts, but smallholders need farm-level intelligence that is locally validated and actionable. By combining advanced forecasting with investment in ground weather stations, this initiative addresses a core constraint in Africa: limited observation infrastructure. Reliable, field-tested forecasts are essential for turning predictive capability into practical agricultural decisions.

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26/02/26

Acumen invests in Ghana’s digital shea platform Vitara

More details have emerged on the investment by social impact investor Acumen Acumen in Ghana-based Vitara, formerly known as Sommalife, announced earlier this year. Financial terms were not disclosed. The backing will support scaling market linkage to 60,000 farmers, expanding shea butter processing capacity and fully deploying the company’s digital traceability infrastructure across all operational zones.

Vitara digitises the shea nut and soybean value chains through a B2B model supplying verified, traceable produce to international buyers and brands. Aggregation and digitisation occur via intermediary mobile-enabled agents who register farmers, coordinate procurement, capture transaction data and manage quality control at community level. The company sources from rural communities where 90 percent of suppliers are women farmers.

Its TreeSyt platform tracks crops from farm to buyer and generates real-time supply chain data. To date, 150,000 farmers are registered on TreeSyt, with 40,000 active suppliers. The company targets reaching one million farmers by 2030, integrating traceability, climate resilience and premium market access into routine farming practices.

Image credit: Acumen

Vitara is also a former grantee of the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation 2.0, supporting digital innovations that enable vulnerable populations to adapt to climate change and strengthen biodiversity.

Why it matters
Recent ArisTechia coverage shows rising investment in digital value-chain infrastructure across Kenya, India and Sri Lanka. Capital is concentrating on buyer-facing platforms built around aggregation and traceability, suggesting investors see stronger revenue scalability in market-linked systems than in direct-to-farmer app models.

27/02/26

AfDB backs Saviu II startup fund in Francophone West Africa, agritech in focus

The African Development Bank Group has committed USD7.1 million as a limited partner in Saviu II, a venture capital fund investing in early-stage technology startups across Francophone West and Central Africa, including agritech companies. The commitment includes USD4.9 million in equity and USD2.2 million in first-loss capital, backed by the European Commission through the Boost Africa Programme.

Managed by Saviu Partners, the fund plans to invest USD540,000–USD3.3 million in around 20 seed and early-stage startups, with at least 60% of investments targeting Francophone markets including Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Benin and Cameroon.

Why it matters
Venture capital in Africa remains concentrated in a few English-speaking hubs. Startups in Francophone Africa raised about USD450m in 2025, according to Africa: The Big Deal, but early-stage capital remains limited. As sectors such as agritech expand, including companies like OKO Finance, Tolbi and Ignitia, funds such as Saviu II aim to strengthen seed-stage financing across the region.

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28/02/26

AfCFTA and AGRA partner to boost farmer-centred intra-African trade

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have launched a new partnership aimed at strengthening farmer-centred agricultural trade within Africa. The collaboration focuses on accelerating the practical implementation of the AfCFTA agricultural agenda, including reducing barriers to cross-border agricultural trade and improving coordination between governments, agribusinesses and farmer organisations. By strengthening regional supply chains, the alliance aims to expand market opportunities for African farmers while improving food security and economic resilience.

Why it matters

While this is a trade initiative, deeper regional integration under AfCFTA has important implications for digital agriculture. Trade integration enables digital services that connect farmers, buyers and supply chains across borders, including digital commodity exchanges, traceability systems and other cross-border agritech solutions.

04/03/26

Kenya rolls out electronic central registry for warehouse receipts

Kenya has launched a national Electronic Warehouse Receipt System Central Registry (eWRS-CR) to digitise agricultural commodity trading and expand farmers’ access to finance. The secure, government-owned system automates and centralises warehouse receipts issued under the national Warehouse Receipt System. It was developed by TradeMark Africa, a not-for-profit organisation that works to improve trade infrastructure across Africa, and funded by the British High Commission in Nairobi.

Photo credit: Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Kenya)

The system is operated by Kenya’s Warehouse Receipt System Council, the statutory regulator overseeing licensed warehouses and the national warehouse receipt framework. Supported by the Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry, through the State Department for Trade, the launch is a step in the rollout of a structured and digitised warehouse receipt system.

Commodities stored in certified warehouses can be converted into electronic receipts that can be pledged as collateral for financing, helping strengthen trust in stored commodities as financial assets while improving transparency in agricultural markets.

Why it matters

Warehouse receipts are a key mechanism linking agricultural value chain digitalisation with farmer finance. By turning stored commodities into verifiable collateral, they enable access to working capital. Similar models underpin agritech platforms such as StarAgri and Arya.ag in India, where digital warehouse receipts support collateralised lending and commodity trade.

05/03/26

Gates grants $7M to climate-resilient crop research in LMICs

The Gates Foundation has awarded USD 7 million to Belgian agritech startup Rainbow Crops to accelerate the development of climate-resilient crop varieties for Africa and South Asia.

Rainbow Crops combines AI, multiplex genome editing and automated phenotyping to identify complex genetic traits that improve crop performance under heat and drought stress. The funding will support the company’s Trait Foundry platform, designed to speed up the discovery of traits that are difficult to develop through conventional breeding.

The research will initially focus on three key staple crops (maize, sorghum and rice), which are central to food security in climate-vulnerable regions.

Why it matters

This investment reflects growing interest in AI-driven crop design, where computational tools are used to accelerate plant breeding and identify combinations of genetic traits linked to climate resilience.

As climate pressures intensify across smallholder farming systems, advances in drought- and heat-tolerant crop varieties could play an important role in stabilising yields and strengthening food security in emerging markets.

India reveals rollout details for Bharat-VISTAAR AI advisory

New details have emerged on Bharat-VISTAAR, India’s multilingual AI agritech tool designed to unify advisory information across government data systems and deliver it through voice and digital channels. Announced in the 2026–27 Union Budget with an allocation of INR1.50 billion (approx. USD 16.5 million), the initiative will provide real-time weather, soil, pest and disease alerts, mandi (middleman) prices and scheme information via a toll-free helpline (155261), chatbot, mobile app and web interface.

Photo credit: Global Agriculture

Bharat-VISTAAR integrates India’s AgriStack portals and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s recommended practice packages with AI systems to generate crop- and location-specific guidance in multiple languages. Initial rollout will support Hindi and English, with additional regional languages to follow, consolidating fragmented central and state datasets into a single AI-enabled interface.

Bharat-VISTAAR functions as an AI interaction layer within India’s agricultural Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), sitting on top of existing farmer registries and AgriStack data systems rather than replacing them. At launch, it will surface information from major government schemes and datasets and contextualise it through AI-generated guidance, with deeper integrations expected as DPI components expand.

Why it matters
Bharat-VISTAAR marks a shift from building agricultural data registries to deploying a national AI interaction layer on top of them. The latest rollout details, including USD16.5 million in budget backing and a toll-free voice interface, indicate a clearer push toward last-mile accessibility for underserved and voice-first farmers at scale.

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18/02/26

IFC partners with Coopbank to expand digital agri finance in Ethiopia

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has partnered with the Cooperative Bank of Oromia (Coopbank) to expand access to finance for smallholder farmers, cooperatives, and agribusinesses in Ethiopia, leveraging digital technology to address gaps in agricultural lending.

Under the agreement, IFC will support Coopbank in strengthening its agribusiness services by improving credit risk management and using digital platforms to deliver tailored financial products across agricultural value chains. The initiative aims to link finance more closely to production cycles, inputs, and markets, reducing reliance on collateral-based lending models that have limited smallholder access.

Photo credit: Cooperative Bank of Oromia

Coopbank, majority-owned by farmers and cooperatives, operates more than 750 branches nationwide, with 76 percent located in rural and semi-urban areas. Its digital platforms include the Michu Digital Lending app, an AI-driven loan service developed in partnership with local fintech Kifiya, and Farmpass, launched with Mastercard to digitise payments and farmer financial histories, strengthening market linkages and access to financial services. Together, these platforms have reportedly reached more than 2.7 million users, primarily youth and women, enabling access to markets and uncollateralized financing.

Why it matters
Ethiopia’s Digital Agriculture Roadmap (2025–2032) puts credit and insurance at the heart of its scale-up strategy. With Coopbank’s deep rural reach and IFC’s backing, this partnership could become one of the most tangible vehicles for turning those digital agri finance ambitions into real, on-the-ground delivery.

17/02/26

New AI initiative digitises African languages for farmer advisory

A new collaboration between International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Farm Radio International (FRI), supported by CGIAR’s Accelerator on Digital Transformation, aims to use AI and natural language processing to strengthen agricultural extension systems.

The partners are developing Longa (“Let’s chat” in Swahili), an AI-powered speech recognition tool that automatically transcribes, translates and analyses farmers’ voice messages in local languages. FRI receives thousands of voice messages each week through its participatory radio programmes, but much of this feedback remains underused due to language and resource constraints.

Trained on languages including Luganda and Bambara, Longa is designed to outperform generic speech models in low-resource language settings. By converting voice messages into structured data, the tool aims to make agricultural advisory more responsive, evidence-based and inclusive.

Why it matters

Digitising underrepresented African languages is foundational to making AI work for African farmers. Initiatives like this help build language models grounded in local words, concepts and contexts, rather than adapting global tools that overlook them.

14/02/26

Kenya announces dairy value chain digitalisation plan, targeting 1.8M farmers

Kenya’s Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), in partnership with pan-African credit guarantor Africa Guarantee Fund and dairy-focused agritech Space AI, has launched a climate-smart dairy value chain transformation project aimed at strengthening the sector for 1.8 million smallholder farmers.

Photo credit: Space AI

The programme is rolling out digital systems with participating cooperatives in key dairy-producing counties. Space AI, which specialises in digitising dairy value chains, is implementing farmer profiling, milk data capture and automated check-off systems. These tools create structured production and payment records, giving cooperatives and partners clearer visibility across the value chain.

The digitised data layer is also intended to improve credit access. By generating verifiable performance histories, it helps financial institutions assess risk and extend lending to farmers and dairy enterprises that previously lacked formal records. Alongside the digital rollout, the project promotes climate-smart practices to improve productivity and resilience.

Why it matters

Dairy’s daily collection and structured payments make it well suited to digitisation. But value chain digitisation is hard to scale and depends on sustained cooperative adoption and reliable digital tools and data. If successful, cooperative-level digitisation can create shared data rails that multiple actors (lenders, insurers and advisory providers) build on.

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Funding and product launches

13/02/26

India’s agri e-commerce BigHaat raises USD 10M, targets international expansion

Indian agritech BigHaat has secured USD 10 million in fresh funding from Bidra Innovation Ventures as it accelerates its path toward profitability and global expansion.

Foudned in 2015, BigHaat began as an online marketplace enabling farmers to purchase agricultural inputs, from seeds and crop protection products to fertilisers and farm machinery. It has since broadened its services to include agronomic advisory, crop intelligence and data for farmers and input manufacturers.

More recently, the company has built post-harvest market linkages, sourcing and supplying spices, grains and pulses by connecting farmers with institutional buyers seeking fully traceable produce.

BigHaat now reports 3 million monthly active farmers using its services. According to recent disclosures, the company is nearing EBITDA break-even and has set a target of USD 1 billion in annual revenue within five years, alongside plans for international expansion.

The USD 10 million raise follows its February 2024 USD 8.4 million Series C round and supports this next phase of capital-efficient growth.

20/02/26

Leads Connect launches AI-powered agri risk intelligence systems

India-based agritech LeadsConnect has launched two AI-driven systems aimed at strengthening agricultural risk analytics and decision support across the agri-value chain.

The company introduced the Integrated Command Centre for Risk Intelligence (ICCRI) and Kedar–Parvati, an intelligent platform incorporating satellite data, field-level inputs and Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities. The system is designed to generate high-volume insights across agriculture, climate and financial risk domains.

Leads Connect operates through a B2B2C model, serving banks, insurers, agribusinesses, cooperatives and government agencies. These institutions use its analytics stack to support crop risk assessment, agri-lending, insurance underwriting and advisory services that ultimately reach smallholder farmers.

By embedding AI-driven risk modelling into financial and advisory systems, the company aims to improve farmers’ access to credit, insurance and climate-resilient decision tools.

Why it matters

The launch, held during Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Paulo Teixeira’s visit for the India AI Impact Summit, signals growing South–South cooperation in agri-AI.

More fundamentally, it reflects AI’s shift toward becoming core risk infrastructure, embedding predictive intelligence into the financial and advisory systems that ultimately serve smallholder farmers.

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Scaling and deployments

14/02/26

Brastorne expands to Côte d’Ivoire with Orange partnership

Botswana-based agritech company Brastorne is expanding into Côte d’Ivoire through a partnership with telco Orange, with operations expected to begin by the end of Q1 2026.

Founded in 2013, Brastorne says it serves over six million users across Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Guinea, and Zambia.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the company will introduce a low-data, low-bandwidth solution designed for entry-level smartphones, reflecting a wider shift across African digital services toward hybrid models that combine USSD, SMS and web-based access.

Image source: TechCabal, Gnim Zabdiel Mignake on Unsplash.

Brastorne’s core service suite includes mAgri, which provides farmers with market information, trading opportunities and agricultural advice, Mpotsa, an interactive voice and SMS service delivering localised content on health, education and employment, and Vuka, a social communication service tailored for feature-phone users.

Why it matters
Cross-border scaling remains rare in African agritech. Brastorne’s move suggests its telco-enabled model can extend beyond its home market. Alongside players such as OKO, which also partners with Orange, and regional expanders like Pula, SunCulture and Hello Tractor, it signals a small but growing group of regional players building operations across multiple African markets rather than remaining single-country focused.

12/02/26

Nigeria’s met agency, Tomorrow.io pilot climate advisory for 100,000 farmers

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), in partnership with weather intelligence company Tomorrow.io and MTN Nigeria, has begun piloting its Digital Climate Advisory Service, targeting 100,000 smallholder farmers across six zones.

The programme will initially deploy SMS-based advisories before expanding to voice services and strengthening extension agents with high-quality forecast information. The rollout marks the first field deployment following last year’s partnership announcement.

Why it matters

A live pilot marks an important step from partnership to implementation. If successful, mobile-based, weather-driven advisory could strengthen climate resilience for Nigeria’s largely rain-fed smallholder systems and demonstrate a scalable model for digital climate services.

Drawing on case studies from Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, the report shows that AI in agriculture in LMICs has moved beyond experimentation, with solutions increasingly used to improve yields, detect pests and diseases earlier, and support climate-smart farming practices linked to food security and undernutrition reduction.

In agriculture, the report highlights four initiatives. Digital Green’s FarmerChat operates in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, delivering AI-generated agricultural advice via mobile phones. Designed for low-literacy contexts, it supports voice, text, and image inputs and builds on Digital Green’s broader reach of more than 8 million farmers.

The value AI adds to FarmerChat

Image credit: GSMA Mobile for Development

Among active users, around 60% report adopting at least one new farming practice, while the cost of delivering advisory services has fallen by up to 100 times compared with traditional extension.

Lersha, based in Ethiopia, applies AI to link agronomic advice with climate risk management and access to finance, while Varaha, operating mainly in India and South Asia, uses AI and satellite data to automate carbon measurement and verification, enabling smallholders to access carbon markets. The report also highlights the World Bank’s Geo-AI and data-driven agriculture initiatives, which embed AI within national data systems for crop monitoring, climate risk analysis, and policy planning.

Key findings

Across these cases, the evidence suggests AI delivers the greatest impact when it is localised, multimodal (supporting voice, text, and image-based interaction), affordable, and embedded in existing agricultural institutions with humans in the loop. Where these conditions are absent, AI tends to expose deeper structural constraints, underscoring that agricultural transformation through AI remains a socio-technical challenge rather than a purely computational one.

Why it matters

The report shows that AI can work in smallholder agriculture, but only under specific conditions: impact depends less on model performance than on data quality, local grounding, and sustained human involvement. Where these elements are missing, AI does not compensate for structural weaknesses in agricultural systems, it makes them more visible.

04/02/26

India announces multilingual AI Bharat-VISTAAR for farm advisory

The Government of India plans to launch Bharat-VISTAAR, a multilingual, AI-driven agriadvisory platform designed to consolidate multiple state-level and central agritech services into a single interface. The platform will deliver weather, soil, pest and information on government schemes in regional languages, and will tailor recommendations to farmers’ local contexts.

Announced in the Union Budget 2026–27, Bharat-VISTAAR is positioned as a national digital utility aimed at making government-backed advisory services more accessible and reducing informational friction for smallholder farmers.

Image credit: KhetiGaadi

Bharat-VISTAAR is designed as an agricultural digital public infrastrcture (DPI) layer integrating AgriStack digital records with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) package of recommended agricultural practices. It will use AI to support productivity, improve farm-level decision-making and reduce risk through customised advisory support. Initial rollout is expected in major Indian languages, with expansion to additional regional languages over time. Funding for the initiative has been allocated in the 2026–27 financial year as part of a broader technology push in agriculture.

The announcement aligns with a wider agritech focus in the budget 2026, which emphasises the role of digital agriculture and AI adoption to strengthen agricultural advisory systems and support farm incomes across India.

Why it matters
Bharat-VISTAAR is an important step in the development of agri DPIs, but its impact will hinge on whether it prioritises interoperability and reinforcement of existing agritech solutions rather than duplicating them. For example, Syngenta recently expanded its Cropwise Grower app with additional AI-driven, multilingual features and signalled intent to integrate with the VISTAAR platform, underscoring how private platforms are aligning around public infrastructure.

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04/02/26

Ethiopia launches OpenAgriNet platform for advisory, markets and finance

The Government of Ethiopia has launched OpenAgriNet (OAN Ethiopia), a national DPI intended to serve as a digital backbone for agricultural advisory services, market access, financial services and government programmes. The platform has been developed by the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) in collaboration with the Center for Open Societal Systems (COSS), an Indian non-profit working on stimulating DPI adoption globally.

Photo credit: ATI

OAN Ethiopia is designed as an AI-enabled, interoperable digital layer linking farmer and farm identifiers with extension services, markets, climate information and financial services. According to ATI, the platform is built on open standards and consent-based data governance, with voice-first access, local-language advisory, and location-specific AI recommendations tailored to crop, soil and climate conditions. ATI will serve as the first implementing partner, with integration planned across national digital systems.

The launch operationalises Ethiopia’s Digital Agriculture Roadmap (2025–2032), which prioritises the creation of shared digital infrastructure such as farmer profiles, unique IDs and interoperable data systems.

Why it matters

OpenAgriNet highlights the growing role of South–South collaboration (in this case between Ethiopia’s ATI and India’s COSS) in building agricultural DPIs, with its impact hinging on whether a single digital backbone can effectively coordinate advisory, market and financial services at scale.

05/02/26

Koltiva pilots AI-powered food supply chain traceability in Indonesia

Indonesian agritech Koltiva is piloting an AI-powered traceability and sustainability solution for agricultural supply chains, starting with a coffee and cocoa agribusiness in Indonesia. The pilot is implemented under AI Singapore’s AIAP for Industry programme, a government-backed initiative supporting the deployment of applied AI in real-world business operations. The project integrates AI into Koltiva’s KoltiTrace platform to automate ESG and regulatory reporting.

Photo credit: AgTechNavigator.com, Koltiva

The solution uses AI to validate field and transaction data, monitor data quality, and generate sustainability and compliance reports, reducing reliance on manual reporting processes. Koltiva positions the pilot as a response to tightening global regulations, including the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Founded in 2013, Koltiva reports operations in 94 countries, supporting more than 19,000 businesses and reaching over 2 million producers. In 2023 the company completed a seven-figure Series A funding round led by AC Ventures.

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06/02/26

StarAgri reports FY25 growth as it scales digital agri-commerce infrastructure

India’s StarAgri Group has reported consolidated revenue of USD 170 million in FY25 (55% growth) and set a target of USD 240 million in revenue for FY26, pointing to continued expansion of its digital agri-commerce and post-harvest infrastructure across India.

In practical terms, StarAgri runs digital systems that help move crops from warehouses to buyers. It works mainly with Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), traders, and agribusinesses, using technology to track stored crops, match them with buyers, and support access to loans and insurance linked to warehouse receipts. Farmers typically interact with the platform indirectly, through cooperatives or aggregators that use StarAgri’s storage, trading, and financing services.

Why it matters
StarAgri’s model highlights how a growing share of digital agriculture activity happens through back-end market, storage, and finance systems rather than farmer-facing apps. For small and medium farmers, access to organised markets and credit increasingly depends on participation in these digitally enabled value chains, even when the technology is not directly visible on the farm.

04/02/26

Zowasel and Fluna join Afreximbank accelerator with pre-seed and seed backing

Two Nigerian agritechs, Zowaselv and Fluna, have been selected into the inaugural cohort of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) Flagship Accelerator Programme. The eight participating startups will receive tailored technical support, mentorship, and access to Afreximbank’s pan-African trade networks, with the opportunity to secure pre-seed or seed investment of up to USD 250,000 through the bank’s impact investment arm, the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA).

Founded in 2019, Zowasel operates an agritech and finance marketplace connecting farmer cooperatives and agribusinesses with buyers. In 2024, as reported by ArisTechia, the company launched the Alternative Credit Evaluation Scoring System (ACESS), an AI-enabled credit assessment tool designed to estimate farmers’ working capital needs by predicting yields and income, enabling financial service providers to set loan limits aligned with farmers’ production capacity and repayment ability. In 2025, Zowasel integrated as a non-financial institution with Afreximbank’s Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) and the bank’s digital due diligence and compliance platform MANSA, enabling cross-border payments and compliance verification.

Founded in 2021, Fluna operates a B2B digital trade infrastructure platform connecting African producers with verified buyers and embedding financing directly into trade flows. The platform integrates trade execution and financing to address persistent market access and liquidity gaps in regional and export trade.

Good reads (what ArisTechia is reading..)

05/02/26

AI in agriculture in LMICs: Evidence and limits from new GSMA report

The new GSMA report AI for Impact at Scale: Case Studies from Innovators in Low- and Middle-Income Countries examines how AI is being deployed across development sectors, with agriculture emerging as one of the most advanced application areas.

Drawing on case studies from Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, the report shows that AI in agriculture in LMICs has moved beyond experimentation, with solutions increasingly used to improve yields, detect pests and diseases earlier, and support climate-smart farming practices linked to food security and undernutrition reduction.

In agriculture, the report highlights four initiatives. Digital Green’s FarmerChat operates in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, delivering AI-generated agricultural advice via mobile phones. Designed for low-literacy contexts, it supports voice, text, and image inputs and builds on Digital Green’s broader reach of more than 8 million farmers.

The value AI adds to FarmerChat

Image credit: GSMA Mobile for Development

Among active users, around 60% report adopting at least one new farming practice, while the cost of delivering advisory services has fallen by up to 100 times compared with traditional extension.

Lersha, based in Ethiopia, applies AI to link agronomic advice with climate risk management and access to finance, while Varaha, operating mainly in India and South Asia, uses AI and satellite data to automate carbon measurement and verification, enabling smallholders to access carbon markets. The report also highlights the World Bank’s Geo-AI and data-driven agriculture initiatives, which embed AI within national data systems for crop monitoring, climate risk analysis, and policy planning.

Key findings

Across these cases, the evidence suggests AI delivers the greatest impact when it is localised, multimodal (supporting voice, text, and image-based interaction), affordable, and embedded in existing agricultural institutions with humans in the loop. Where these conditions are absent, AI tends to expose deeper structural constraints, underscoring that agricultural transformation through AI remains a socio-technical challenge rather than a purely computational one.

Why it matters
The report shows that AI can work in smallholder agriculture, but only under specific conditions: impact depends less on model performance than on data quality, local grounding, and sustained human involvement. Where these elements are missing, AI does not compensate for structural weaknesses in agricultural systems, it makes them more visible.

Briter’s data indicate that agritech continued to attract a relatively small share of capital compared with fintech and climate-focused infrastructure. In 2025, agritech funding declined further as deal volumes remained broadly stable but total capital fell and median deal sizes compressed. Investors increasingly shifted away from on-farm solutions toward post-farm, value-chain-oriented models such as marketplaces, logistics, processing and warehousing.

Agritech investment trends, 2016-2025

Source: Briter

These asset-heavy, revenue-backed segments accounted for nearly 50% of all agritech funding in 2025, up from just over one-quarter in 2024. This shift has been accompanied by a rise in debt financing to nearly one-third of total capital invested, leaving many early- and mid-stage agritech ventures undercapitalised and reliant on small rounds rather than progressing to growth-stage financing.

Geographically, agritech funding mirrored broader market concentration. South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria anchored most deal value in 2025, with Kenya and South Africa particularly prominent. Deals tracked by ArisTechia included Nile’s USD 11.3 million raise and Khula’s USD 6.7 million Series A in South Africa, while in Kenya Pula Foundation raised USD 10.4 million early in the year. The second-largest reported agritech deal in Africa in 2025 was Ghana’s Complete Farmer, which raised USD 10.4 million to scale precision agriculture and market-linkage solutions.

Under its agreement with Starlink, Globe plans to integrate direct-to-cell satellite services into its mobile network to extend coverage to remote islands and underserved rural areas across the Philippines. As an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, the country faces structural challenges in achieving nationwide mobile coverage using terrestrial infrastructure alone, positioning satellite-enabled connectivity as a strategic complement rather than a replacement for existing networks.

Photo credit: Developing Telecoms

In parallel, Lynk Global has carried out direct-to-device testing with Smart Communications, including trials in Catanduanes, demonstrating basic messaging and limited data capabilities in areas without cellular coverage. The tests form part of broader preparations for potential commercial satellite-to-mobile services in the country.

Why it matters

Agriculture is among the sectors expected to benefit most from improved connectivity, particularly in rural regions where farmers and agribusinesses face persistent coverage gaps. Many digital agriculture applications are designed to operate with limited bandwidth, but more reliable satellite-enabled connectivity would support wider adoption across remote farming communities.

The Philippine initiatives reflect a broader global trend, as mobile operators increasingly partner with satellite providers to extend coverage, improve network resilience, and advance digital inclusion beyond traditional terrestrial footprints. In Africa, as reported by ArisTechia, mobile operator Airtel recently announced a partership with Starlink to rollout direct-to-cell satellite connectivity across 14 countries, beginning in 2026.