Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 29 Nov #37
Aquatechs JALA in Indonesia and Aquarech in Kenya raise funding, TomorrowNow gets $5M Gates grant for climate adaptation, India’s Arya.ag expands into Africa
21/11/23
New Aduna Capital fund targets early-stage agritechs in Northern Nigeria
Investment firm Aduna Capital has announced the launch of a USD 20 million fund dedicated to early-stage African startups, including agritechs. The Fund will invest 55.5% of its capital in Northern Nigeria, with 25% going to startups in the rest of the country, and the remaining amount going to other African markets. The Fund is also looking to invest in women-led organisations, and targets 50% female representation. According to reports, it plans to invest between USD 50,000 and 200,000 in each startup, looking to exit at Series A stage. Aduna Capital’s strategy is to support the transformation of the Northern Nigeria region, which has a population of 100+ million. The organisation also hopes to shift the focus from the capital Lagos, which is home to over 80% of startups in the country. Aduna Capital has been founded by local entrepreneurs Surayyah Ahmad and Sanusi Ismaila (also the founder of Northern Nigeria’s’ Innovation Hub Colab).
22/11/23
Kenya’s aquatech Aquarech closes $1.7M equity investment
Kenyan aquatech Aquarech has closed a USD 1.7 million equity investment led by Dutch aquaculture investor Aqua-Spark, with additional funding from impact investors Acumen, Katapult and Mercy Corps Ventures. The startup will use the funds to hire more staff and develop its technology and infrastructure. Established in 2019, Aquarech is a mobile-based fish farming platform enabling market linkages between small-scale fish farmers, feed manufacturers and traders. Through the platform, Aquarech supports fish farmers by providing quality feed and by enabling them to implement climate-smart, data driven precision fish farming techniques. In addition, it offers access to markets and financial services via a 90-day credit period to pay for feed.
Photo credit: Aquarech
23/11/23
India’s Arya.ag partners with Fairgro Africa for crop monitoring
India’s Arya.ag, a B2B market linkage platform, has entered into an international partnership to provide digital agriculture services to Kenyan agribusiness Fairgro Africa Limited (FGAL). Arya.ag will leverage its Aryashakti mobile application to support field teams with digital plot management, communication and resource planning, enhancing productivity and sustainable agricultural development. In India, Arya.ag works with about 660 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the grains value chains. The startup has been looking at international expansion for some time. In October, Arya.ag said in a statement that it was expecting to double its profits for this financial year 23/24. FGAL works with 2,000+ farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda in value chains including pyrethrum, marigold, stevia, castor, and chili. FGAL targets to reach 25,000+ farmers by 2025.
27/11/23
TomorrowNow gets $5M Gates grant for climate adaptation in Africa, targets 20M farmers
TomorrowNow, the non-profit climate tech that originates from weather intelligence company Tomorrow.io, has secured an additional USD 5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide weather intelligence services to farmer-facing organisations in Africa. Target beneficiaries are research organisations, NGOs, multilateral organisations, private service providers, farmer cooperatives, and government agencies serving African smallholders. The partnership is expected to help 20 million farmers adapt to climate change by 2027 by improving crop simulation for climate-resilient seed breeding to regenerative farming practices. In 2021, TomorrowNow was a awarded by Gates Foundation the USD 2 million Osiris Grant to improve the seed breeding value chain in Africa with weather intelligence. According to the non-profit climate tech, that initiative has helped one million African farmers to adapt to climate change. In this follow up initiative, TomorrowNow plans to leverage AI capabilities and significantly improved historical datasets, observations, and short-term and seasonal weather forecasts from global technology companies such as Tomorrow.io, Salient Predictions, and Arable.
28/11/23
Indonesian aquatech JALA bags $13.1 M in Series A round
Indonesian aquatech start-up JALA has just completed a series A funding round of USD 13.1 million. The round was led by Intudo Ventures, a VC firm that exclusively invests in Indonesia, with participation from Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV), and existing investors Mirova and Meloy Fund (Deliberate Capital). The funding will enable the startup to expand its operations in regions with high potential for shrimp farming, including Sumatra, Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara. Indonesia is the world’s fourth-largest producer of shrimp. It is home to eFishery, which operates in the fish and shrimp sectors, and has recently become Indonesia’s first agritech unicorn. Founded in 2017, JALA is a digital ecosystem enabler for the shrimp value chain. At the core of its offering is the JALA app. It provides farmers with data-driven aquaculture analysis, including a water quality monitoring device as well as access farm assistance, farm financing, inputs, and market linkages.
28/11/23
CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator open for applications
Agritech is one of the focus areas of the CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator (CFSA) program 2024, a science-driven accelerator designed to support agribusinesses scale climate-smart innovations in East and Southern Africa food systems. By combining investment readiness with science-based technical assistance, CFSA provides agribusinesses with the tools and knowledge to become more commercially viable, environmentally conscious, and sustainable. For the 2024 cohort, the CFSA will be partnering with the Agroecology Initiative to support agribusinesses in embracing sustainable and eco-friendly agricultural practices. Key areas of interest are mechanisation and irrigation, conservation agriculture, nutrition-sensitive climate smart agriculture, and agricultural risk management. Target countries are Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Besides technical assistance, the winning pitches will receive de-risking grants of USD 20,000, USD 18,000, and USD 12,000. The application deadline is 8 January.
Reflection point: Strong investor confidence for aquatech in 2023, Indonesia takes the lion’s share
This week’s raises by aquatechs JALA and Aquarech are respectively the third and fourth 2023 investments in aquatechs in LMICs, showing strong investor confidence for a proven use case. In April, Vietnam’s aquatech Tepbac announced a USD 2.25 million pre-series A funding round led by Aqua-Spark. In May, Indonesia’s eFishery bagged USD 108 million in a Series D round becoming Indonesia’s first agritech unicorn. To date, the aquatech sector has totalled a significant USD 125.05 million investment in 2023, with Indonesia-based aquatechs eFishery and JALA taking the lion’s share at 97% of the total money raised.