Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 20 Dec #40
Vegrow bags $46M Series C in India as eFishery plans expansion; In West Africa, Ignitia partners for climate intelligence; Pakistan’s Mobilink Bank details green financing commitments
11/12/23
VEON’s Mobilink Bank invests $5.6M in green financing in Pakistan
Pakistan’s digital microfinance bank Mobilink Bank said in a statement that it has invested PKR 1.6+ billion (USD 5.6 million) in green financing, primarily focusing on loans for solar applications in agriculture to promote renewable energy. Mobilink Bank is the financial services arm of mobile operator group VEON. It is among the first adopters of climate finance in Pakistan. Besides providing financial services, it has a partnership with local agritech BaKhabar Kissan (Informed Farmer), to provide agricultural advisory to farmers (crop, livestock advisory and weather information).
Mobilink Bank has 45+ million users including 16+ million monthly active mobile users. It has a hybrid model that combines traditional microfinance with mobile/digital banking technologies. It operates with 100+ branches and 220,000 branchless banking agents, and provides a USSD (GSM) based digital channel offering savings, micro enterprise (MSME) loans, small housing loans, remittances, collection (utility bills and loan instalments), mobile wallets, insurance, G2P, B2B and B2P payments.
12/12/23
Ignitia enters in partnership for climate intelligence in West Africa
Tropical weather forecasting start-up Ignitia, a provider of weather and climate advisory for farmers, has announced a partnership to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts for agriculture in West Africa. The startup is joining forces with Kosmos Innovation Center, a Ghanaian non-profit organisation that invests in young entrepreneurs and small businesses, Ghana’s Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, and The International Trade Centre - Netherlands Trust Fund 5 (NTF V) for a new initiative dubbed “From Thunderstorm Predictions to Brainstorming Climate Smart Agriculture Solutions”. The initiative, which was announced at ClimateTech hackathon in Accra, aims to support young entrepreneurs in developing climate intelligence innovations that address the challenge of low-accuracy weather forecasts in tropical regions. Ignitia provides its weather information to West African farmers, including 48h rainfall forecasts, monthly and seasonal predictions, via SMS and an app. It has had long-standing partnerships with mobile operators Orange, MTN and 9 Mobile.
13/12/23
Indian B2B agri e-commerce Vegrow raises $46M
Indian agri e-commerce startup Vegrow, a B2B marketplace connecting farmers with buyers in fresh fruit value chains, has raised USD 46 million in a Series C round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. This is GIC’s first investment in India’s B2B agritech sector. The round saw the participation of existing investors Prosus Ventures, Matrix Partners India, Elevation Capital, and Lightspeed. Established in 2020, Vegrow is a tech platform partnering with farmers, aggregating supply, and selling to organised demand through partnerships. It offers to farmers personalised advisory based on soil, water, weather, stage of the crop and target markets, access to markets and farmgate services (grading, packaging, logistics). According to reports, since launch Vegrow has experienced a fivefold increase in revenue and has now achieved operational profitability. Only a year ago, the startup bagged USD 25 million in its Series B round.
Photo credit: Getty Images
14/12/23
Indonesia’s eFishery completes Indian pilot, plans further international expansion
Indonesian aquatech eFishery has announced the completion of its pilot in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and has confirmed plans to expand to five more states in 2024. Since the start of the Andra Pradesh pilot in March, the aquatech has acquired 1,000+ acres of ponds under contract, and distributed 3,000+ tonnes of feed. Andra Pradesh makes for 35% of the country’s total aquaculture production. As it expands to other Indian states, eFishery has also confirmed plans to launch in 2024 in two further international markets, in Asia and Latin America. Founded 2013, eFishery initially developed an Internet of Things (IoT) based smart pond management system, and has over time expanded to an end-to-end solution enabling fish farmers to access markets and financial services. The company recently raised USD 200 million, becoming the first agritech unicorn in Indonesia and the only aquatech unicorn globally.
17/12/23
Censa and SAP partner to boost agri value chain digitalisation platform
Indian tech company CensaNext Systems, a subsidiary of agri ecommerce platform WayCool, has announced a partnership with SAP under which it will become the partner managed cloud provider of the SAP S/4HANA enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The partnership will strengthen Censa’s agri value chain digitalisation solution for small enterprises and start-ups. Censa has an AI and IoT powered software as a service (SaaS) platform that brings real time visibility across agricultural value chains, including planning, growing, managing inventory, sales, distribution and credit management. In India, the startup has sourced produce from 200,000 farmers, including those aggregated by Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). Last February, WayCool announced plans to enter the Kenyan market through Censa.
12/12/23
Good reads: Report estimates impact of DPIs in India at $100+ BN, highlights opportunity for agritech
A new report by Redseer Strategy Consultants estimates that Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs) will contribute USD 100+ billion in value across various sectors of the Indian internet economy. A DPI can be defined as a set of shared digital systems that should be secure and interoperable, and can be built on open standards and specifications to deliver and provide equitable access to public and/or private services. The report argues that the creation of DPIs in agriculture will bring changes to traditional practices, boosting the adoption of precision farming and empowering farmers to achieve higher yields and better prices. It also states that DPIs will support new business models, with healthtech, agritech, and insurtech startups poised to benefit the most.
Indian DPIs that have been adopted at scale, including in rural areas, are the Aadhaar biometric ID system and the United Payments Interface (UPI) for financial inclusion. In November, India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare launched the Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics (UPAg), a DPI and an online agricultural data management platform designed to generate crop estimates and integrate with other systems generating agriculture statistics. UPAg serves as a centralised hub for near real time information on crop production, market trends, pricing, and other key agricultural data.