Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 12 Sep #28
Vodafone, Amazon partner for rural connectivity, Catalyst Fund raises $8.6 M for climate techs, USAID invests in marketplace for women-led agribusinesses
05/09/23
Catalyst Fund announces first $8.6M close of African climate tech fund
The Catalyst Fund, a Pan-African fund targeting pre-seed startups, has announced an initial close of USD 8.6 million of its USD $40 million venture fund for African start-ups supporting climate action. The fund is backed by FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi), Cisco Foundation, USAID Prosper Africa, and tech investor Andrew Bredenkamp. The Catalyst Fund, which last year made a transition from accelerator to VC fund, plans to invest through the new venture fund in startups, such as agritechs, including aquatechs, insurtechs, climate-focused fintechs, and in startups active in cold chain, waste management and water management. Up for grabs are ticket sizes of USD 200,000 for pre-seed startups, including technical assistance for venture building, with follow-on investments of USD 500,000 at seed-stage, and up to USD 1.5 million in Series A rounds. Having already invested in 10 startups, the venture fund plans to invest in an additional 20 startups. Established in 2016, the Catalyst Fund has a portfolio of 71 investees, including agritechs such as Crop2Cash (Nigeria), Agro Supply (Uganda), FarMart (India), and aquatech Aquarech (Kenya).
05/09/23
Vodafone partners with Amazon for rural connectivity in Africa
Mobile operator group Vodafone and Amazon have announced a strategic collaboration that will enable Vodafone’s units in Africa to connect rural and dispersed communities to mobile broadband. Vodafone will be able to leverage Amazon’s Project Kuiper initiative, a constellation of 3,236 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, to extend the reach of 4G and 5G services in unserved and underserved communities. Project Kuiper will connect geographically dispersed cellular antennas back to the Vodafone units’ core telecom networks. Mobile broadband should become available in more locations without the time and expense of building out fibre-based or fixed wireless links. Amazon expects to begin beta testing Project Kuiper services with Vodafone by the end of 2024. Vodafone operates in eight African markets including Egypt, DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya (Safaricom) as well as Ethiopia, where it has launched operations this year under the brand Safaricom.
06/09/23
USAID announces $6M investment for women-led agribusinesses, powers digital marketplace
At the Africa Food Systems Forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, USAID announced new investments for a total of USD 15 million to support inclusive and resilient food systems in the region. The funding will provide targeted support to women, smallholder farmers, and small- and medium-sized businesses. This includes a USD 4 million investment in the VALUE4HER initiative by AGRA, which aims to increase the performance of rural women entrepreneurs through access to markets and trade, access to finance and investments, through tailored online and offline match making activities. VALUE4HER is powered by VALUE4Her Connect, a one-stop-shop digital marketplace offering integrated business solutions to women-led agribusinesses. USAID also announced a USD 5 million investment in Sustain Africa, an initiative that coordinates public and private sector to help smallholder farmers access affordable fertiliser. In addition, USD 6 million will go to the Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F), an investment fund focused on improving diet quality and nutrition.
11/09/23
Innovative African agritechs grab prizes at Pitch AgriHack
The Pitch AgriHack competition awarded USD 45,000 to six innovative African agritechs at Africa Food Systems Forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Among providers of digital agriculture solutions, in the category “Early Stage”, the winner was eSusFarm (South Africa), an agritech connecting farmers via feature-phone USSD to value-chain services, markets, and credit providers. In the same category, the runner-up was DeepLeaf (Morocco), an agritech that has an intelligent farming chatbot that uses deep learning to analyse plant images and assist farmers in disease analysis. In the category “Women-led Agribusiness”, the winner was Rhea (Kenya) an agritech offering an IoT-powered solution that helps smallholder farmers make decisions by enabling affordable soil testing for smarter farming. Applications were received from 39 African countries. The Pitch AgriHack competition is organised by the African Food Systems Forum (AGRF), Heifer International, and Generation Africa.
In other news…
07/09/23
Kenya’s AgriTech Analytics awarded AGRA’s WAYA prize
Kenya’s AgriTech Analytics has won the Women Agripreneurs of the Year Awards (WAYA2023) in the category Female Ag Tech Innovator. AgriTech Analytics’ Director Maryanne Ruguru Gichanga received a grant of USD 20,000. AgriTech Analytics is a data-driven company that supports smallholder farmers to monitor their crops through an online platform and mobile app. It uses AI powered and IoT sensors to detect crop pests and diseases and perform soil health analytics. The award was announced at the Africa Food Systems Forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
08/09/23
ICTforAg announces Inspire Challenge 2023
ICTforAg, an annual convening for agrifood and technology experts (7-9 November), has launched the Inspire Challenge 2023 to increase women’s participation in digital agri-food advisory services and programmes. Five providers of digital advisory services (the Challengers) will be chosen and given six months to achieve their gender inclusion goal. All Challengers will be provided with a suite of technical support options, including human-centered design workshops, consultative meetings, and learning grants of up to USD 20,000. If the goal is achieved, each participant will be eligible to receive the final prize of USD 30,000 in June 2024. ICTforAg is organised by Feed the Future, USAID, CGIAR, DAI and DevGlobal Partners. There is time to apply to the Inspire Challenge 2023 until 5 October.