Digital Agriculture in LMICs -11 Apr #53
New funding announcements in Kenya (SunCulture), India (ONO), Indonesia (FishLog); Banks keen on digital farmer finance in Pakistan (BOP) and carbon credits in Nigeria (Acorn Rabobank)
02/04/24
SunCulture completes Series B raise at $27.5M
Kenya’s startup SunCulture has completed an oversubscribed USD 27.5 million Series B fundraise to scale its solar Internet-of-Things (IoT)-enabled irrigation systems across sub-Saharan Africa. This includes a USD 12 million equity investment from InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and Savant Group. PIDG is a multilateral organisation governed by donors from seven countries and the World Bank. InfraCo Africa is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom (through FCDO), the Netherlands (through DGIS) and Switzerland (through SECO).
Photo Credit: SunCulture
Founded in 2013, SunCulture provides end to end to support to farmers using its irrigation kits, including financing, installation, maintenance and advisory services. SunCulture’s solar pumps are brought to market through a Pay-As-You-Grow model at a cost that is estimated to be 40-60% lower than the cost of a fuel-based pump. The majority of farmers using SunCulture’s systems, which support remote monitoring and predictive maintenance, are smallholders owing 1-3 acres and relying on rainfed agriculture. Battery systems also include domestic lighting and enable farmers to charge small devices such as mobile phones. Currently, SunCulture participates in a carbon credit programme, and has its emissions reductions verified by VERRA. Participation in this scheme enables the agritech to reduce the upfront cost of its pumps for farmers.
02/04/24
Bank of Punjab and Karandaaz join forces for digital farmer loans in Pakistan
Pakistan’s Bank of Punjab (BOP) and Karandaaz, a not-for-profit organisation promoting access to finance for SMEs and financial inclusion for individuals, have announced a new initiative to foster agricultural digital financial services in Pakistan. The objective is to test models to simplify the loan disbursal process leveraging innovative solutions, such as real-time loan disbursement based on predictive AI assessments. The BOP has committed to provide digitally-enabled loans to crop, livestock and dairy smallholders, including marginal ones for a total value of just under USD 18 million. The initiative is the result of Karandaaz’ Digital Financing for Agriculture (DFA) Challenge 2023, which awarded a grant of USD 180,000 to BOP. The objective of the DFA challenge is to support solutions that provide formal credit, reduce high interest rates, eliminate collateral challenges, and simplify procedures, thus reducing dependency on exploitative non-institutional sources.
02/04/24
Indonesia’s FishLog closes Pre-Series A extension round
Indonesian aquatech Fishlog has announced the closure of its Pre-Series A extension round. Investors include Mandiri Capital Indonesia, BNI ventures, Accel Partners, Insignia Ventures Partners, and Saison Capital. The funds will go towards strengthening the FishLog cold chain ecosystem. On the demand side, a particular focus will be on strengthening distribution in the US, a key market for FishLog’s traceable fisheries products.
FishLog connects cold storage facilities across Indonesia with the aim of increasing the transparency and stability of the fisheries supply chain. The aquatech supports sustainability and empowers fisherfolk by connecting them to finance and markets. It has two digital solutions: FishLog Trace guarantees seafood comes from responsible sources, leveraging a traceable sourcing system, while FishLog Smart Contract is a blockchain-powered solution that handles financing, enhancing and transparency. In December 2023, FishLog obtained a USD 100,000 from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia.
04/04/24
ONO raises $1.3M in seed funding to expand supply chain platform across India
Indian agritech ONO has raised USD 1.32 million in a seed funding from Aeravti Ventures, with participation from Indigram Labs Foundation (ILF), a tech business incubator. The startup plans to use the funding to continue expanding its supply chain management platform that creates efficiencies by streamlining communication and transactions between farmers and farmer ecosystem players such as agents, traders, buyers and transporters. It has a suite of solutions that enable farmers and other actors to access credit, price intelligence, and to enhance market discovery, supply and demand visibility. The agritech works with 73,000+ farmers across 6 states across more than 45 so-called Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and markets (mandis), with over 30,000 partners onboarded and transactions covering seven commodities.
09/04/24
ThriveAgric and Acorn Rabobank partner for farmer carbon credits in Nigeria
Nigerian agritech startup ThriveAgric has joined forces with Acorn Rabobank, the climate action arm of Dutch bank Rabobank, to offer carbon credits to 30,000+ Nigerian smallholders. The objective of the partnership is to foster sustainable agroforestry practices and global carbon market development. The partnership is expected to yield USD 56 million in income for farmers residing in nine states (Kaduna, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Jigawa, Niger, Nassarawa, and Kano), while curbing 1.3 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions. According to reports quoting Samirah Bello, Head of Partnerships at ThriveAgric, a farmer with a one acre of land could generate as much as USD 1,700 per year for carbon credits, with the possibility to generate higher revenues after three years, as trees planted as part of carbon schemes mature.
Photo Credit: Techpoint Africa, ThriveAgric
Founded in 2017, ThriveAgric has a suite of digital agriculture solutions, from input financing to data-driven agri advisory and market access. It works with 800,000+ smallholders in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. Besides the partnership with Acorn Rabobank, the agritech is also working on a B2B platform dubbed Dorewa, which is aimed at organisations looking to implement carbon projects. ThriveAgric has to date raised USD 60 million in funding, the bulk being the 56.4million in debt funding raised in March 2022.
09/04/24
Good reads: New AgFunder-ISF Advisors report looks at smallholder finance for climate adaptation
AgFunder and ISF Advisors, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have published a new report titled “Climate Capital: Financing Adaptation Pathways for Smallholder Farmers”. The report looks at ways in which private investors provide both mitigation and adaptation financing that eventually helps smallholder farmers adapt to climate change. It discusses the challenges in investing in climate adaptation for agriculture with the objective to uphold food systems in low and medium-income countries. One of the key findings of the report is that digital tools are the most popular adaptation investment for venture capital, and India is the leading country for tech investment in adaptation by company HQ location. Within agri-food-tech, digital agribusiness marketplaces are the most invested category followed by farm management systems, which support precision agriculture practices and a better understanding of crop yields.
The report analyses agritech deals that support climate financing from the last 10 years and finds that a total of USD 5.7 billion of private investment going into the sector across 1,543 deals. The deals fit into six categories including On-farm and off-farm infrastructure; climate-smart inputs; enabling data and intelligence; financial services (including fintech and insurance); climate adaptive supply chain connectors; and digital marketplaces.