Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 21 Jun #19
Nigeria’s ThriveAgric presents 2022 impact, Kenya’s Twiga downsizes, India’s Unnati raises $3.5 million
13/06/23
ThriveAgric reaches 500K+ farmers in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya
Nigerian agritech ThriveAgric has released its 2022 annual impact report. Founded in 2017, the start-up has an end-to-end solution that digitises agricultural value chains, from input financing to data-driven agri advisory and market access. According to the report, the agritech has to date onboarded 514,000+ smallholder farmers (150.7% year-on-year growth across its three markets). ThriveAgric is building a network of 9,000+ rural agents across 2,900+ communities in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. These include extension agents supporting smallholder out-grower schemes using ThriveAgric's digital platform dubbed Agricultural Operating System (AOS), and the commercial agents for ThriveAgric's Tradr digital marketplace platform. The report states that the company provided farmers with USD 100 million in financing and worked with 450+ partners. After raising USD 56.4million in debt funding in March 2022, ThriveAgric is eyeing expansion into Zambia, Tanzania, and Egypt.
13/06/23
Twiga downsizes agent base amid growing pressure
Kenyan B2B agri e-commerce platform Twiga Foods confirmed that last May it had laid off 130 sales agents. The company, which has been struggling with poor performance amid growing competition, said that these 130 agents out of an active base of 390 were performing below expectations. In November 2022, the company had announced its intentions to downsize its workforce by transitioning its Trade Development Representatives (TDRs) from permanent employees into independent agents on a 100% commission basis. In November 2021, Twiga raised USD 50 million in a Series C round to expand operations in Kenya and East Africa. At the start of June, the company had also announced the outsourcing of 20,000 acres of maize production in the Galana-Kulalu farming scheme to a company called Selu Limited.
14/06/23
India’s agri-fintech Unnati raises $3.5M for “climate-ready” services
Indian agri-fintech Unnati has raised USD 3.46 million in pre Series B funding round led by fertiliser company IPL Biologicals with the participation of Incofin Investment Management, Nabventure and Orios. Unnati provides financial services to small and medium farmers, as well as market linkages (inputs and outputs) and agronomic advisory via an AI-powered digital platform. The company plans to use the funding to develop and distribute “climate-ready” products through a partnership with IPL Biologicals. The Unnati app leverages soil data, image data (e.g. crop pictures), transactional histories and satellite data to provide farmers with input recommendations, output and earning predictions, and credit risk assessment for financial service providers. Unnati states that it has to date engaged 750K+ farmers in eight states. Established in 2017, it has to date raised USD 10.8 million, according to Crunchbase.
In other news…
17/06/23
Cisco and Social Alpha announce Krishi Mangal accelerator cohort
ITC giant Cisco and Social Alpha, an Indian venture development platform, have announced the second cohort of Krishi Mangal, a scale-up accelerator program to support agritech start-ups focusing on smallholder farmers. Over a period of 18 months, the accelerator will provide grant funding, piloting opportunities, go-to-market assistance, fundraising guidance, technology refinement, and mentorship to seven in-revenue start-ups impacting agriculture and livelihoods. Amongst the start-ups focusing on digital agriculture solutions, there is Animeta Agritech (Your Farm), which has a digitised end-to-end animal healthcare platform providing 24/7 support via a disease-diagnosing chatbot and a connected platform for ethnoveterinary products. The Krishi Mangal initiative was launched in 2021, with the objective to improve the lives of farmers by accelerating deep-tech innovations in the agritech sector.
16/06/23
Agromovil leverages USDA partnership to pilot in Ghana and Tanzania
The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had partnered with US-based agritech Agromovil to help smallholder farmers in Ghana and Tanzania access local markets. Established in 2017, Agromovil has an app that helps farmers connect with new buyers, sell direct, and find optimised transport. In Ghana, FAS funded the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology enabling Agromovil to pilot their app with sorghum producers. In Tanzania, FAS supported a partnership between Agromovil and the Tanzanian Horticultural Association (TAHA) working in the onion and avocado value chains. This project was funded by USAID and Tanzania. Since the launch of Agromovil in both countries in 2022, 1,600+ farmers and buyers have signed up, resulting in USD3.5+ million sales. More than half of the farmers who are using the app are young farmers and women farmers.
One that we missed…
07/06/23
World Bank gives $500 million to Bangladesh for climate resilience agriculture, agritech
In a press release, the World Bank has announced a USD 500 million financing agreement to the government of Bangladesh to enhance climate-resilient agricultural growth and food security. The Program on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship, and Resilience (PARTNER) will help transform the agriculture sector by promoting crop diversification, food safety, and climate resilience across agri-food systems. Among its objectives, the programme aims to help increase entrepreneurship and access to services by expanding access to digital agricultural services tools, improved food safety processes, and increased female and youth entrepreneurship.
19/06/23
Good reads (1): New ADB report explores Philippines’ agritech start-up ecosystem
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a new report “The Philippines’ Ecosystem for Technology Startups” focusing on agritech, edtech, healthtech and greentech. The study, which is the seventh country report of the series Ecosystems for Technology Startups in Asia and the Pacific, highlights the need to attract investment in the sectors. Philippines’ startups raised USD 858 million in 2021, with most of the funding going to fintech (66%). Healthtech attracted 0.12% and edtech, 0.02%. Agritech and cleantech were too small to be mentioned. Lately, however, there have been promising developments in the Filipino agritech sector. In January, agritech start-up Mayani, a B2B marketplace linking farmers and fisherfolk with buyers, raised USD 1.7 million seed funding.
20/06/23
Good reads (2): World Economic Forum outlines pillars of Telangana digital ag partnership
In a new blog, the government of the Indian state of Telangana and the World Economic Forum (WEF) present the four pillars of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework adopted by Telangana to scale digital agriculture. The four pillars are: Agri value chain transformation, Agritech sandbox, Agriculture data exchange (ADEx), and the Agriculture data management framework. Started in 2022, the Saagu-Baagu project is an example of value chain transformation. Implemented by Digital Green with support from the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation, the project (now in pilot phase) has enabled 7,000 chilli farmers to access AI-based advisories, soil testing, produce quality testing and e-commerce. Telangana, where agriculture contributes 18.3% to the state’s gross value, targets to deliver agritech services to 100,000 farmers by 2025. WEF has in two initiatives in India focused on agritech innovations for agriculture and food systems – AI for agriculture innovation (AI4AI) and the Food Innovation Hubs.