Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 27 Jun #20
Kenya’s iProcure and Sri Lanka’s Agrithmics comment on new funding, growth plans, Southeast Asian investors Argor Capital, Kaya Founders eye agritech
19/06/23
Nigeria’s ePoultry joins Baobab Network accelerator
Nigerian agritech start-up ePoultry has made it to the first 2023 cohort of tech accelerator The Baobab Network. The agritech is a B2B marketplace for poultry farmers. It uses a mobile app to provide farmers with data-driven input financing, digitised record keeping, technical support such as storage options and logistics support, and advisory (e.g. waste management), besides access to buyers. The Baobab Network has been operating as an accelerator since 2019. It typically invests USD 50,000 into early-stage tech ventures. It has to date invested in 40 start-ups, including those in the newest cohort. Founded in 2019, ePoultry has to date raised USD 129,000 according to Crunchbase, with partner organisations including the German Development Cooperator (GIZ) and Obama Foundation. The poultry industry in Nigeria is largely small scale. According to a study by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency RVO, it contributes approximately 25% to agricultural GDP.
20/06/23
VC Go Ventures rebrands, targets agritechs in Southeast Asia
Singapore-based tech startup VC Go Ventures has rebranded as Argor Capital Management after closing its second flagship fund Argor Capital Fund II (USD 240 million). Founded in 2018 and backed by Indonesian digital giant GoTo, Argor raises funds from organisations such as wealth funds, institutional investors, corporations, and family offices. Argor invests in early-stage and mid-stage tech ventures, primarily in Southeast Asia. It works across multiple sectors including agritech and climatetech. It is known to have invested in aquatech start-up eFishery in Indonesia. Typical ticket sizes for its second fund are likely to be in the range of USD 2-10 million, with 15-20 companies to be added to its portfolio.
22/06/23
India’s Agribazaar launches crop advisory pilot
Agribazaar, an Indian mobile app-based market linkage platform, has launched a pilot to provide crop advisory to 3,000 farmers in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Farmers will be able to access a comprehensive crop calendar via the agribhumi feature on the Agribazaar app. Advisory is enabled by Machine learning (ML) and is available in English and local languages and includes crop-specific schedules, weather information and soil and crop management information. In addition to the market linkage platforms (inputs and outputs), Agribazaar has a suite of solutions including IoT farm management and agri fintech services. Founded in 2016, the start-up is an independent entity owned by agri marketing company StarAgri Group, which is backed by investors Temasek and Investcorp. Agribazaar states that it has onboarded 15,000 traders and processors, 125+ Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), and 355,000 farmers.
22/06/23
ThriveAgric seeks $30 million for African expansion
The CEO of Nigeria-based agritech ThriveAgric Uka Eje has told The Africa Report that the company is seeking USD 30 million, as well as additional debt financing, to expand in Nigeria and new African markets (Zambia, Tanzania, and Egypt). Founded in 2017, ThriveAgric has an end-to-end solution that digitises the agricultural value chain, from input financing to data-driven agri advisory and market access. In an impact report released on 13 Jun, the company stated that it has to date onboarded 514,000+ smallholder farmers (150.7% year-on-year growth) across its three markets of Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. ThriveAgric has to date raised USD 60 million in funding, the bulk being the 56.4million in debt funding raised in March 2022.
23/06/23
Sri Lanka’s Agrithmics raises $1.4 million, rebrands, expands to Bangladesh
Sri Lankan agritech start-up Agrithmics, a company backed by local mobile operator Dialog Axiata, has raised USD 1.4 million from Bangladesh-based VC firm BRAC Osiris Impact Ventures in a Pre-Series A funding round. The start-up has also announced that it is rebranding as Cultiv8 Technologies, that is moving headquarter to Singapore, and it is expanding to Bangladesh. Established in 2020, the agritech describes itself as a cloud-based end-to-end process automation and fintech solution provider. The company is specialised in the digitalising the tea value chain and has engaged in Sri Lanka 40,000 tea growers. In 2019-2022, it worked under the GSMA Innovation Fund for the Digitisation of Agricultural Value Chains to develop a digital procurement solution used by tea factories and agribusinesses in Sri Lanka to record transactions with tea farmers.
23/06/23
Kaya Founders to support agritechs in the Philippines
Philippines-based venture capital firm Kaya Founders has announced the first close of a USD 12 million fund to support early-stage tech start-ups in Southeast Asia, with a focus on the Philippines. The funding round, which brings the capital managed by Kaya Founders to USD 16.5 million, was supported by the prominent Gokongwei family with participation from institutional investors, family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and entrepreneurs. Kaya Founders has to date supported 31 start-ups, including companies in the agritech sector. One if its investments is Indonesia’s agritech Semaai, a marketplace app for agricultural inputs, which earlier this year raised USD 1.65 million in a bridge funding round led by Accion Venture Lab and XA Network.
23/06/23
Kenya’s iProcure confirms USAID grant, expansion plans
In an interview with the Kenyan Wall Street, iProcure’s CEO Niraj Varia has talked about the recent USD 1.2 million grant that the agritech secured from USAID. In addition to the grant, USAID's Kenya Investment Mechanism has supported iProcure in raising finance and investments and securing funds from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. The agritech has been widely supported by investors. Last August, it raised USD 10.2 million in a round led by impact investor Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) with Novastar Ventures and British International Investment (BII) also participating among others. The new USAID grant funding will support iProcure in expanding its field agent network in Kenya.
Established in 2013, iProcure is a provider of digital procurement solutions for agri value chains. It has a proprietary supply chain technology that supports business intelligence and data-driven stock management for agro dealers and enables efficient delivery of supplies to farmers. According to USAID, farmers engaged by iProcure have seen yields increased up to 50%. The start-up, which last month announced expanding its operations in Tanzania in partnership with Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA), has reportedly raised a total of USD 17.2 million.
One that we missed:
08/05/23
AfDB-funded digital agriculture platform launched in Kenya
The Co-operative University of Kenya (CUK) has launched the Kenya Rural Transformation Centers Digital Platform (KRTCDP). The platform is funded with KES 114 million (USD 815,000) by the Fund for Africa Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) of the African Development Bank (AfDB). The KRTCDP aims to be a one-stop-shop for farmers, connecting them via an app with input suppliers, agro-dealers, financiers, insurers, marketers, and buyers. A key value add of the platform is the timely weather information provided to farmers by the Kenya Meteorological Department. The implementer is consulting company Morvey Business Limited. In the pilot phase, the platform will be deployed in the counties of Nakuru, Baringo and Nyandarua, with an initial focus on maize, Irish potatoes, and dairy.