Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 19 May #15
IFAD, Grow Asia seek digital ag implementer in Southeast Asia, OKO and Allianz renew crop insurance partnership in Africa, Absa Bank invests in South Africa's Khula!
12/05/23
Absa Bank buys stake in South African agritech Khula!
Absa Bank has acquired for an undisclosed amount a minority stake in South-Africa based agritech start-up Khula!. Established in 2016, Khula is a supply chain solution for emerging farmers connecting them directly to formal markets. It offers the Inputs Mobile App, enabling farmers to buy 2,000+ products, from seeds to fertilisers, and the Fresh Produce Trader Mobile App, allowing them to market their produce. In 2012, Khula! secured a USD 1.3 million seed round to scale operations in South Africa. Headquartered in South Africa, Absa Bank has a strategic focus on the agriculture sector and claims to be the biggest agriculture financier in the country. With operations in 12 African markets, last October Absa Banka announced a USD 240,000 grant to support fintech and agritech start-ups in Ghana.
14/05/23
OKO renews Allianz partnership for digital crop insurance
Agri-focused insurtech OKO Insurance has renewed its partnership with multinational financial services company Allianz. Through the partnership, Allianz will continue to underwrite and insure OKO’s crop insurance products as the insurtech seeks to support its geographical expansion. Incubated in 2018, OKO offers digitally enabled crop insurance via mobile phones, protecting smallholder farmers from the consequences of drought and flood. OKO uses index-based insurance, meaning that claims are automatically validated and claimed if satellite data shows that weather conditions are detrimental to agricultural activities. Allianz and OKO initially signed an agreement in 2019 to test OKO’s concept in Mali. OKO has already expanded from Mali to Uganda and to Cote D’Ivoire. In both countries, it is working in partnership with Allianz subsidiaries.
18/05/23
IFAD seeks partner for digital agriculture project in Southeast Asia
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is selecting an implementation partner such as no-profit institution for the Smallholder Economic Empowerment through Digital Solutions (SEEDs) project in ASEAN countries. The aim of SEEDs, which will build upon projects that were previously financed by the Republic of Korea, is to accelerate and scale-up social and economic development for smallholder households and poor rural people through digital solutions. The project, which has multi-stakeholder platform Grow Asia as an existing implementer, references as guidelines the nine Principles for Digital Development. It aims to support diverse technologies and to focus where possible on specific gender, youth, or climate outcomes. The total available budget is US$ 900,000. Proposals must be submitted by 16 June.
One that we missed..
05/05/23
Indonesia’s agri e-commerce Tumbasin shuts down
Indonesian agri e-commerce Tumbasin terminated operations on May 2, six years after its launch. The company, which is filing for bankruptcy, faced insurmountable financial challenges. The start-up connected so-called traditional market ecosystems, made of local traders procuring produce from farmers and small retailers, with formal markets. In 2020, Tumbasin said that it had around 14,000 active users (buyers) and partnerships with 22 traditional markets and 700 sellers. Tumbasin’s shut down is the latest blow for Indonesia’s troubled agri/food e-commerce sector. In December 2022, TaniHub, a B2B market linkage platform, initiated an ongoing process to avoid bankruptcy, while the same month SayurBox, a “farm to fork” e-grocery platform, started to lay-off staff. Established in 2017, in 2021 Tumbasin raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a seed round from Indigo, Telkom Indonesia’s startup incubator.
03/05/23
Good reads: WEF report highlights agritech role in future of work
The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its fourth Future of Jobs Report (2023) exploring how jobs and skills will evolve over the next five years. The study finds that agriculture technologies, digital platforms and apps, e-commerce and digital trade, and AI are all expected to result in significant labour-market disruption, with substantial proportions of companies forecasting job displacement in their organisations. Of the 673 million jobs reflected in the dataset, respondents expect structural job growth of 69 million jobs and a decline of 83 million jobs, a net decrease of 14 million jobs (2% of current employment). The report, however, also finds that large-scale job growth is expected in agriculture. Big data ranks at the top among technologies seen to create jobs (65% of respondents). The report is based on a global survey with 803 unique responses by global companies, collectively representing 11.3+ million employees worldwide.