Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 4 Feb #1
India’s Ecozen raises $25 million, Synnefa flies Kenya's flag in climate smart agriculture challenge, ITU and FAO to boost agri AI/IoT
24/01/2023
Indian agri-climate tech Ecozen raises USD 25 million
India’s Ecozen, a provider of solar-powered irrigation and cold chain storage solutions, has raised USD 25 million in a Series C round led by Nuveen and Dare Ventures. The funding came as a mix of equity and debt from a pool of investors and banking institutions. Ecozen’s existing investors Omnivore and the Innovation in Food & Agriculture Fund (IFA Fund) achieved partial exits in this round. Ecozen states that it has improved the incomes of 120,000+ farmers, helping decarbonise agriculture. Established in 2020, the start-up aims to expand in Africa and Southeast Asia and to leverage its climate smart technology to expand beyond agriculture into the energy sector. According to Crunchbase, it has raised to date USD 50.6 million.
26/01/2023
Kenya’s Synnefa competes in Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge
Kenyan agritech start-up Synnefa is among the eleven finalists that will compete in the THRIVE Shell Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge. The initiative supports start-ups that enable climate-smart agriculture practices. Key areas of interest are carbon sequestration, access to carbon markets and carbon financing. Synnefa is the only emerging market start-up to be selected in a pool of 300+ applications. The software as a service company (SaaS) has an online farm record keeping dashboard integrated with AI powered IoT devices (smart greenhouse). In September 2022, it was among 60 start-ups selected for the second cohort of Google for Startups Black Founders Fund (BFF) for Africa. Founded in 2021, Synnefa has raised to date USD 1.5 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
27/01/2023
ITU launches focus group on AI and IoT for digital agriculture
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in collaboration with FAO, has launched the Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) for Digital Agriculture (FG-AI4A). The focus group will be an open platform for international experts to explore the potential of AI and IoT to support data acquisition and handling, improve modelling, and identify standardisation gaps. Overall, the initiative aims to identify innovative practices for agricultural production, as well as opportunities to scale up digital agriculture solutions. The focus group will publish the results of these efforts in various reports and case studies. It will have a special focus on low- and middle-income countries.
In other news…
22/01/2023
Bangladesh’ WeGro targets 2023 funding for national expansion
According to reports, Bangladeshi agritech start-up WeGro is looking to raise new funding in 2023. Local newspaper The Financial Express states that the company is planning to use the funds to expand nationwide and impact 200,000 farmers by 2024. Last year, WeGro secured its first investment of USD 100,000 from the Biniyog Briddhi programme’s Impact Ready Matching Fund (IRMF) scheme. Established in 2021, WeGrow has an app that connects individual and institutional financiers with a base of approximately 1,000 farmers. It also provides access to quality inputs and markets.
25/01/2023
Cropin’s B2B farm management software now available on AWS marketplace
Indian agritech Cropin has announced that its B2B farm digitisation software Cropin Grow is available on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace. Cropin Grow is a farm monitoring and management solution that helps agribusinesses and governments digitise farm and farmer records, share advisory, monitor crop productivity, improve farm efficiency, and boost field officer productivity. Established in 2010, Cropin is an AI and data driven software as service (SaaS) agritech. It has to date raised USD 46.4 million, according to Crunchbase, the latest funding being a USD 13.7 million Series D round in January 2022.
30/01/2023
Heifer partners with MasterCard on Community Pass
NGO Heifer International has announced that it will partner with MasterCard to support the Community Pass solution, initially focusing on Kenya and Tanzania. Through the partnership, Heifer aims to advance the digitalisation and the financial inclusion of African farmers. Community Pass services, and specifically the Farm Pass, are app-based solutions that establish a digital identity for unbanked communities. Farm Pass digitises payments and farmer financial histories, increasing market linkages and access to financial services. Heifer plans to reach six million smallholder farming households in Africa by 2030.