Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 8 Jan #41
Indian precision ag startup Fasal raises $12M, Kenya's Twiga confirms amount of November raise at $35M, Mercy Corps shares results of AgriFin for Women India initiative
We are back for the first edition of the new year with recent updates over the holiday period and the latest announcements from early 2024.
22/12/23
Precision ag startup Fasal gets $12M for India expansion
Indian precision agriculture start-up Fasal has raised INR 1 billion (USD 12 million) in a Series A round led by TDK Ventures and British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, with contribution from ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, Navam Capital and Aureolis Ventures. The startup, which works in 13 Indian states, plans to use the funding to support market expansion across India and into Southeast Asia. It also aims to diversify its B2B brand, Fasal Fresh, procuring sustainably grown, fully traceable, and high-quality produce from its network of growers. Established in 2018, Fasal has an IoT based AI-powered intelligence platform for horticulture crops that supports farmers source inputs, grow better crops using precision farming and sell produce. Fasal offers farm-level, crop-specific, and crop-stage-specific intelligence. The start-up states that its solution has helped farmers increasing yields and quality by up to 30 per cent.
Photo credit: Fasal
27/12/23
Mercy Corps details impact of AgriFin for Women (A4W) India
NGO Mercy Corps has released an impact brief of its AgriFin for Women (A4W) India initiative. Supported by the Walmart Foundation, the initiative aims to advance the uptake of digital financial services bundled with other services that increase income and support resilience for 100,000 women smallholder farmers in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The initiative, which involves partners such as development consultants Dalberg and Indian agritechs DeHaat and Samunnati, aims to test and scale innovations, including digitally-enabled agri loans and insurance. It also has the objective of developing public facing documents to share learnings. The brief outlines that out of all economically active Indian women 80% cent are employed in agriculture (33% for agriculture labour force and 43% are self-employed farmers). If finds that 20% to 30% additional yield can be generated by women farmers if provided with the same access to productive resources, including digital agriculture solutions, as men.
03/01/24
Farmers Edge and LTIMindtree launch innovation hub in India
US agritech Farmers Edge and LTIMindtree, a technology consulting and digital solutions company headquartered in India, have jointly launched the Farmers Edge Innovation Lab (FEIL) in Mumbai. The objective of the innovation hub is to facilitate expertise and knowledge exchange between North America and India. FEIL aims to educate and empower Indian farmers, providing tailored solutions that enhance yields, reduce costs, and ensure a sustainable future for Indian agriculture. The lab will focus on key digital agriculture solutions for the Indian market such as those that provide weather intelligence, and support soil health and field processes. Farmers Edge has developed an holistic digital agriculture platform that leverages field sensors, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and agronomic expertise, turning data into intelligent insights. LTIMindtree enables enterprises across sectors, including agriculture, to develop new business models, accelerate innovation, and maximise growth by harnessing digital technologies.
04/01/24
Bangladeshi agri e-commerce Agrokumam secures funding
Bangladeshi agritech start-up Agromukam, an agri e-commerce connecting farmers in the poultry, cattle, fishery and agriculture sectors with input suppliers and buyers, has secured a loan investment of USD 91,000 from Midland Bank. The company’s app-based B2B marketplace provides farmers with seeds, pesticides, fertilisers, animal feed, veterinary medicine and supplements in a single digital marketplace. The investment will serve to strengthen Agromukam’s “phygital” model extending its network of agents in the rural administrative divisions called upzilas (formerly called thana) in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is home to about 16.5 million farmers, making for 28% of the country's 170 million population. Agriculture represents 40% of employment. Besides Agromukam, other agritechs in the country include Agroshift, iFarmer, WeGro and Fashol.
05/01/24
Kenya’s Twiga confirms November raise at $35M, CEO steps down
Kenyan B2B agri e-commerce company Twiga Foods said that the funding raised in November 2023 amounted to USD 35 million. The funding comes in as debt (convertible bonds). In the meanwhile, the company’s CEO Peter Njonjo, after announcing shortly after the November raise that he was taking a six-month sabbatical, has officially resigned from his position. As previously reported by AgrisTechia, Twiga secured the funding as part of a business refinancing process. The announcement came as the agritech faced a USD 262,000 debt collection lawsuit from Incentro Africa, a cloud services vendor and a Google services reseller. In 2023, the start-up also reduced its workforce by one third and shut down 11 depots in an effort to reduce operational costs by 40 percent. The November cash injection came through a round led by investors Creadev, and Juven. According to reports, these two investors are now in charge of daily operations and strategy, explaining Njonjo’s resignation.