Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 13 Mar #6
eFishery to become unicorn in Indonesia, DeHaat expects strong financials in India, Microsoft signs partnership for digital ag in Africa
03/03/23
eFishery to become first agritech unicorn in Indonesia
According to reports, Indonesia’s aquaculture start-up eFishery is in advanced talks to finalise a USD 150 million fundraising round anchored to the sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Malaysia (Khazanah Nasional Berhad). The investment will take eFishery to unicorn status, the first of this kind in the agritech sector in Indonesia. Rumours have been circulating since the start of the year. Last October, the start-up secured USD 32 million debt funding from DBS Bank Indonesia. Founded in 2013, eFishery initially developed an IoT-based smart pond management system and has over time expanded to an end-to-end solution enabling farmers to access markets. It has to date secured USD 142.9 million in funding.
05/03/23
India’s DeHaat expects strong revenue growth
Shashank Kumar, the CEO of Indian digital agri-food marketplace DeHaat, said in a meeting that he expects 80% revenue growth this fiscal year (year to 31 March 2023), amounting to approximately INR 23 billion (USD 281 million). DeHaat, which is India’s largest agri e-commerce platform, is also expected to see positive EBIDTA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) by the end of the current calendar year. Kumar stated that that increased sales of inputs to farmers and the positive performance of its fresh food e-commerce platform are driving positive financials. Established in 2012, DeHaat operates through a “phygital” model, supported by a network of 11,000+ DeHaat Centers and 500+ Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). It claims to have 1.8 million active farmers in 12 states and a network of 2,000 B2B partners, such as agribusinesses, input companies and financial services providers. It has to date raised USD 254.3 million.
10/03/23
Pakistani market linkage platform EasyFresh secures funding
Pakistan’s EasyFresh Technologies has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Singapore-based investors. The new funds, which have been secured with the support of existing funder SOSV, through the pre-seed program for emerging and frontier markets Orbit Startups, will allow EasyFresh to expand into new markets. EasyFresh is B2B market linkage platform procuring fresh produce from farmers and delivering it to fruit and vegetable shop-owners. SOSV is a global venture capital firm that operates early-stage startup development programs. Established in 2021, EasyFresh is backed by Cianna Capital, DV, and MAGM Holdings.
11/03/23
Microsoft partners with OCP for digital agriculture in Africa
Microsoft’s Africa Transformation Office (ATO) and OCP Africa, an agri input company specialised on fertilisers, have formed a partnership to strengthen food security in Africa. The two organisations aim to enable farmers to access agricultural information and take up precision agriculture practices. Microsoft and OCP will develop a digital agriculture platform using cloud services, artificial intelligence, and Microsoft’s existing agricultural data platforms. The partnership was announced at the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) in Doha, Qatar on 5-9 March. Last November, the ATO announced a partnership with the IFC to support digital agriculture innovations in Africa.
In other news…
07/03/23
Kenya’s Competition Authority investigates agri/food digital marketplaces
The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) is investigating food and groceries digital marketplaces following consumer complaints. The investigation is focusing on the use of data by online platforms, looking at data consent, data ownership and sharing. The authority is interested in identifying potential issues related to consumer protection and redress mechanisms used by the marketplaces. CAK acting Director-General Adano Wario said that the investigation is required to understand the relevance of the existing regulatory framework and its applicability in the digital markets, and to guide better policymaking. In the past, CAK conducted similar investigations to assess misbehaviour in the digital lending sector, which led to the introduction of the Digital Credit Providers law.
09/03/23
AGRA’s WAYA awards call for women-led agritechs
“Female ag-tech innovator” is one of the three categories of the 2023 Women Agripreneurs of the Year Awards (WAYA) organised by AGRA. The awards recognise African female agripreneurs who demonstrate innovation and business excellence in agricultural value chains. The other categories are “young female agripreneur” (for those under 35) and “outstanding value adding enterprise” (for agribusinesses), in addition to the “overall grand prize winner” category. Winners will be unveiled at the 2023 AGRF Summit in September, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Up for grabs is a total of USD 85,000 in grant funding. There is time to submit applications until 31 May.