Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 7 Feb #46
In India, BigHaat bags $8.4M for agri e-commerce as Ninjacart eyes Egypt expansion; Agromukam partners for insurance in Bangladesh
31/01/24
Hatch Africa raises $9.5M to scale operations in Africa
Hatch Africa has raised USD 9.5 million in funding with participation from AgDevCo, a specialist investor in African agribusinesses, and IDH Farmfit Fund, a public-private impact fund for smallholder farmers. The money is going into Flow Equity Africa Ventures (FEAV), the holding company for Hatch’s operations in Kenya, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire. Founded in 2010, the startup works in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana and Ivory Coast, and sells disease resistant birds that are suitable for backyard farming. The funding will be used to scale operations and adoption the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, with potential to foster digitalisation initiatives. In its website, Hatch states that it reaches an estimated 4.6 million farmers annually with its products. It relies on 16,000+ agents who earn an average of $1,600+ of profit per year. Hatch plans to grow its impact six-fold by 2030, increasing the number of chickens sold annually from 45 million to 340 million.
31/01/24
Bangladeshi e-commerce AgroMukam partners with Green Delta for insurance
Bangladesh’s agritech AgroMukam has signed an agreement with Green Delta Insurance to provide to farmers index-based weather and crop yield insurance, as well as insurance for eventual loss of cattle due to death or partial disability. Green Delta is the leading private non-life insurance companies in the country. AgroMukam is an agri e-commerce connecting farmers in the poultry, cattle, fishery and agriculture sectors with input suppliers and buyers The company’s app-based B2B marketplace provides farmers with seeds, pesticides, fertilisers, animal feed, veterinary medicine and supplements in a digital marketplace. The addition of insurance coverage aims to enhance the financial capabilities of farmers and stabilise farm production. Bangladesh is home to about 16.5 million farmers, making for 28% of the country's 170 million population. Agriculture represents 40% of employment. Besides AgroMukam, other agritechs in the country include Agroshift, iFarmer, WeGro and Fashol.
31/01/24
Nigeria supports 4IR demonstration projects in agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture of Nigeria has announced the ten grantees of the 2024 Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology Application (4IRTA) in Agriculture initiative. 4IRTA aims to identify, demonstrate and mainstream applicable, market-ready innovations that leverage “fourth industrial revolution” (4IR) technologies including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs), Internet of Things (IoT), AI and Blockchain, with a vision to enhance the productivity and sustainability of the Nigerian agricultural sector. The ten grantees, all of which are projects at the ideation stage, will each receive funding of USD 11,000. Awardees include an automated IoT-based irrigation system, an AI disease and health reporting tool for livestock, and a geospatial intelligence model for farmers. The government invited applications in November last year. In a statement, it said that 2,329 applications were received.
01/02/24
Call for female-led African agritechs to apply for SAIS award
The organisers of the SAIS Female Founder Award 2024 are calling for female leaders in Africa with an innovative agritech, foodtech or climatetech initiatives. The award recognizes African female founders with unique businesses that have a strong digital component and embrace social impact. The three winners will win in-kind support worth up to EUR 30,000 (USD 32,300) for the first place, up to EUR 15,000 (USD 16,100) for the second place, and up to EUR 7,000 (USD 7,500) for the third place. This in-kind support includes tailored services such as personalised coaching and participation at a pitching competition at the VivaTech event in Paris on 22- 25 May 2024. The SAIS Female Founder Award is an initiative by “Scaling digital Agriculture Innovations through Start-ups” (SAIS), a project implemented by the German Development Agency (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). There is time to apply until 29 February.
06/02/24
India’s Ninjacart reports 19% revenue increase for 2023, eyes Egypt expansion
India’s Ninjacart, reported a 19% year-on-year increase in operating revenues in the financial year 2023. The startup is one of the country’s main B2B agri e-commerce platforms, together with DeHaat and WayCool . It has a network of 800,000+ farmers producing fresh fruit and vegetables, who are connected with 100,000+ retailers including kiranas (local neighbourhood stores) and restaurants. In parallel, total expenses including procurement, transportation and staff costs rose by 18%. As a result, the company remains a loss making business, losing in the financial year 2023 INR 3.26 billion (USD 39.3 million), a 6% increase in losses compared to the previous year. Managing high procurement costs remains the main challenge for viable business models for e-commerce players, who are pursuing cost cutting measures, including reducing the workforce.
As it reported its yearly results, Ninjacart also announced a partnership in Egypt with Entlaq, an organisation that runs an early stage accelerator programme for startups with the objective to identify promising farm-to-fork agri start-ups, which can leverage its technology solutions. This initiative is part of the Ninja Ventures international programme dedicated to exporting the company’s tech expertise via partnerships. Founded in 2015, Ninjacart has raised USD 367 million and is backed by 23 investors including Walmart who has invested USD 145 million.
07/02/24
India’s agri e-commerce BigHaat raises $8.4M
Indian agritech startup BigHaat has raised USD 8.4 million in a Series C round co-led by investor Ashish Kacholia and RBA Finance and Investment Company. According to reports, the investment is believed to be the first step in an ongoing funding round. BigHaat’s main offer is a market linkage platform for agri inputs such as seeds, herbicides and farm machinery. As a “full-stack” platform, it also provides advisory services data-driven advisory and business intelligence to farmers and input manufacturers. Founded in 2015, BigHaat has engaged to date 4+ million farmers across India. The company, which has raised so far around USD 29 million, has a target to impact 10+ million farmers in next three years. According to its financials, BigHaat has been growing rapidly in recent years with its gross revenue jumping 5.4 times in the financial year 2023 compared to 2022. However, in the last financial year the agritech still recorded a INR 350 million loss (USD 4.2 million).
Photo credit: BigHaat
Reflection point: Indian agritechs grow confident on exporting B2B2C to Africa
Ninjcart is the latest Indian agritech to announce plans to venture into Africa, this time into Egypt, an agricultural giant and one of the four tech hubs in the region with Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Last December, StarAgri Group announced plans to expand into Africa, starting from Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria. The company said that it was targeting to eventually generate one third of its revenues from international markets. Exactly one year ago, in February 2023, Ninjacart’s main competitor WayCool also unveiled plans to enter Kenya through its arm CensaNext Systems. If we add to the list Arya.ag, which just last November entered into a partnership with Kenyan agribusiness Fairgro Africa to provide services in Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda, we get to four Indian agritechs moving into the region. All of these players- Ninjacart, StarAgri, WayCool and Arya.ag - implement a B2B2C model and have market linkage solutions. They also share a confidence in exporting the same model to Africa.