Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 24 Apr #12
Traction for India’s agri-fintechs as Arya.ag reports solid growth of farmer loans while Mastercard partners with M1xchange for FarmPass, Vietnam’s aquatech Tepbac raises $2.25M
20/04/23
Arya.ag surpasses $120 million in farmer loan disbursals, plans blockchain launch
India’s Arya.ag, a B2B market linkage platform for farmers and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the grain value chain, said that it crossed INR 1,000 crore (USD 121.9 million) worth of loan disbursal in the financial year 22/23 through its fintech platform Aryadhan. The amount disbursed is grown over three times since FY 2021.
Source: Arya.ag
Arya.ag also said that it has launched its public agri blockchain ledger and is now in the process of moving its loan operations onto the blockchain. Established in 2013, Arya.ag embeds financial services for smallholder farmers owing less than five acres, such as loans against their stored commodity in the platform. Through the platform, farmers and FPOs also receive warehousing services, fumigation and quality testing services, and access local and international buyers.
20/04/23
Mastercard partners with M1xchange to boost farmer financing
Mastercard has partnered with M1xchange to enable farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), and agribusinesses in India to get funds against unpaid invoices through its Farm Pass platform. Part of Mastercard's Community Pass services, Farm Pass 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. M1xchange is a digital exchange platform to sell receivables (outstanding invoices) to financial service providers. It operates through the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) under the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In January, Mastercard announced that Farm Pass had reached one million Indian smallholders.
20/04/23
Innoterra awarded $6.3 million from India’s National Horticulture Board
Swiss-Indian agritech Innoterra has been awarded a USD 6.3 million grant as winner of the National Award for Entrepreneurship in Agriculture. The grant was given by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) of the Government of India. It has a duration of four years and is dedicated to strengthen the banana value chain in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Innoterra was launched in 2012, and its key offerings are the input and output marketplaces for smallholder farmers. The agritech operates in 14 countries and claims to have onboarded on its platform 327,300+ farmer households and 12,500+ retailers. According to Crunchbase, it has raised to date USD 101 million in funding.
21/04/23
Vietnam’s aquatech Tepbac raises $2.25 million
Tepbac, a Vietnamese aquatech start-up supporting shrimp farmers, has raised USD 2.25 million in pre-series A funding round led by Dutch aquaculture investor Aqua-Spark, with the participation of AgFunder and Son-Tech Investment. The start-app began operations in 2012 as an information provider for the aquaculture sector in Vietnam, through the portal Tepbac.com, which is still the main information source for the industry. It now also offers the Farmext app and web-based solution supporting farm management and market linkages. In addition, Farmext has an IoT-enabled automatic water monitoring device to control water and environment indicators (pH, oxygen, temperature, salinity), and an automatic feeding device. Tepbac will use the funding to scale its technology. According to reports, Tepbac has to date reached 1,500 shrimp farmers.
21/04/23
Agri e-commerce Sayurbox to cut more staff in Indonesia
Tech in Asia reports that Indonesian agri e-commerce platform Sayurbox has laid off several employees in its B2C team due to stagnant growth. Established in 2017, Sayurbox is a “farm to fork” e-grocery platform connecting smallholder farmers with buyers. While the company is seeing solid growth in its B2B business (connecting farmers with institutional buyers), it is struggling in the direct-to-consumer segment and had had to merge some of its B2C warehouses. Last December, it cut 5 percent of staff (40 employees) to strengthen its financial resilience. In March 20022, Sayurbox raised USD 120 million in a Series C funding. According to Crunchbase, the company has to date raised USD 139.2 million.
In other news…
17/04/22
VC4A Venture Showcase Africa interested in climate smart agriculture
Applications are open for the annual VC4A Venture Showcase Africa - 2023, an acceleration programme that looks to introduce to investors African start-ups ready for Seed and Series A financing. The Venture Showcase is sector agnostic, however this year one of the six tracks of the accelerator will be dedicated to climate smart agriculture. Countries of focus are Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda. The showcase is organised in partnership with the African European Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB), an EU/Horizon2020-funded initiative. Since its launch in 2017, VC4A Venture Showcase Africa alumni have raised over USD 630 million.
22/04/22
Katapult on the lookout for agri, climate, food tech start-ups in Africa
Global impact investor Katapult is looking for African start-ups in climate tech, foodtech and agritech to apply to its accelerator programme. In 2023, Katapult plans to invest in and accelerate 40-45 impact startups with a strong focus on oceans, climate, and food systems. Katapult is looking to invest €150K to €500K upfront and help scale start-ups through its three-month tailor-made accelerator programmes. Katapult has a portfolio of 146 portfolio companies in 47 countries. Interested start-ups can apply here.
20/04/23
Good reads: Gearing up to Solve Food Security Challenges
UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and NITI Aayog, the main public policy think tank of the Government of India, have launched the white paper Gearing up to Solve Food Security Challenges. The paper calls for government institutions to open access to quality data to start-ups, from farmer and farm records to weather and market data. It also highlights the need to implement data privacy and data sharing policies, taking as an example the World Economic Forum-supported e-Sahamathi portal in the state of Karnataka. The portal leverages the value of data for social and economic good by enabling start-ups to access data from citizens who have provided consent via an API.
One that we missed…
05/04/23
BII and Shell Foundation commit $245 million for clean energy
UK’s development finance institution British International Investment (BII) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Shell Foundation to support renewable energy, e-mobility and agritech start-ups in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Through the MoU, the institutions aim to provide USD 245 million investment by 2026 to address the finance barriers that exist for early to mid-stage businesses that offer high-impact sustainable and clean energy solutions. The funding also aims to support cross-cutting solutions in the areas of climate and gender inclusion.