Digital Agriculture in LMICs -5 Jun #59

African Development Bank and Mastercard to boost digital identities for farmers; Yola Fresh in Morocco and Fyllo in India bag funding; Gro Intelligence to end operations

29/05/24

New MADE programme to enable digital identities for 3M farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria

The newly announced Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance, an initiative supported by Mastercard and African Development Bank, will focus initially on smallholder agriculture. MADE’s main objective is to extend digital services to 100 million individuals and businesses in Africa over the next ten years. Initially, the programme aims to support three million farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria by providing digital identities and access to high-quality seeds and agricultural inputs through partnerships with local banks. The initiative plans to expand in its second phase to Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana and to eventually target additional markets.

As part of the initiative, the African Development Bank Group has committed USD 300 million providing funding for digital infrastructure and incentivising ecosystem actors to enhance digital access. Mastercard has committed to register 15 million people onto its Community Pass platform within five years, with interoperable digital infrastructure to facilitate involvement from a range of ecosystem participants. Community Pass services,  are app-based solutions that establish a digital identity for unbanked communities. FarmPass is an app-based solution that establishes a digital identity for commercial farmers. The solution digitises payments and farmer financial histories, increasing market linkages and access to financial services. Several organisations have committed to support the MADE Alliance including Equity Bank, Microsoft, Heifer International, Unconnected.org and Syngenta Foundation. 

30/05/24

Morocco’s Yola Fresh secures $7M in pre-Series A round

Moroccan agritech Yola Fresh, a B2B e-commerce platform connecting smallholder farmers with traditional retailers of fruits and vegetables, has raised USD 7 million in pre-Series A. The funding round was led by Al Mada Ventures with other investors including Algebra Ventures, E3 Capital, Janngo Capital, and the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO). Launched in 2023, Yola Fresh seeks to remove middlemen from the food supply chain. It uses technology to track produce from farms to retailers, to ensure transparency and minimise waste. Yola Fresh plans to use the funding to expand its logistics network, bolster technology, and grow its farmer network, and to eventually expand beyond Morocco and into other markets in North Africa. The startup claims to offer 10-20% higher margins to farmers when compared to middlemen based value chains.

30/05/24

Indian precision agriculture startup Fyllo raises $4 million 

Indian agritech startup Fyllo, a precision agriculture company, has raised USD 4 million in a funding round led by IndiaQuotient and SIDBI Ventures, with participation of existing investors Triveni Trusts, IAN, and KIAORA. The startup plans to use the fresh funding to expand into new geographies and crops and develop more precision agriculture products. Established in 2019, Fyllo has an AI-driven agri intelligence platform that provides actionable insights to farmers. The platform leverages data from Internet of Things ( IoT) enabled devices installed at the farm capturing data from soil, climate and crop canopy. The company’s mobile app and dashboards provide to farmers live farm data, irrigation and fertiliser scheduling, disease and pest prediction, weather predictions. The company currently works with 8,000 farmers.

Photo credit: Fyllo

31/05/24

Agricultural data platform Gro Intelligence to terminate operations

AgFunder News has reported that Kenya-based agritech Gro Intelligence is terminating operations as it couldn’t raise sufficient capital. Last March, the company had raised emergency funding in a bridge round and laid off 60 percent of its staff, but the move was not enough to stay in business. Founded in 2012, in January 2021 Gro Intelligence had raised USD 85 million in a Series B round from funders including Intel Capital and Africa Internet Ventures. Gro Intelligence developed a B2B AI-powered agricultural data platform. It leveraged data from governments, trade organisations, weather and geological agencies, commodities and financial markets to provide actionable insights.  According to reports, Gro Intelligence failed to differentiate its client portfolio, relying heavily on a handful of clients such as consumer goods company Unilever, its biggest client. In recent years, the company tried to position itself as a food security platform targeting governments but this strategy wasn’t successful, and the company shifted to bespoke consultancy-style projects.

03/06/24

Digital Green expands partnership with Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Institute  

NGO Digital Green has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) to digitise farmer registries, enhance agricultural extension channels, and improve market access for smallholder farmers, with a focus on women and young farmers. Digital Green is a global development organisation that started in 2006 as an incubation project within Microsoft Research. It partners  with governments and agricultural organisations to scale public extension systems through technology. Historically, it leveraged its unique model to offer community-based videos providing advisory and training services.

Photo credit: Digital Green

Recently, the NGO has increased its focus on generative AI and developed Farmer.chat, a multi-lingual AI chatbot assistant delivering tailored assistance to extension agents working with farmers, which is rolling out in Kenya and India. Digital Green has been active in Ethiopia for over 12 years, and is behind ATI’s nation-wide agri advisory 8028 farmer hotline. The new partnership with Digital Green complements existing collaborations with other market players, such as local agritech Lersha, which in March last year also joined forces with ATI to develop digital profiles for 1,050,000 smallholder farmers and provide agro climate advisory and fertiliser recommendations.