Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 11 Feb #2
Agritech at the core of India’s Union Budget, Indonesia’s EdenFarm raises $1.5 million, WayCool to expand to Kenya
01/02/2023
India’s Union Budget 2023: Funding for agritech, and digital agriculture as a public good
The agritech sector was at the core of the much-anticipated India’s Union Budget 2023. Among the measures announced by the country’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, there is the establishment of an agricultural accelerator fund to encourage innovative start-ups in rural areas. The Minister also announced plans to deploy an open-source, open-standard and interoperable digital public infrastructure for the agriculture sector. This public good will provide a suite of services including information on crop planning and health, improved access to farm inputs, agricultural credit and insurance, and market intelligence. The announcement is very much in line with the approach taken by the government of Narendra Modi to support digital public goods under the IndiaStack umbrella, including initiatives such as the Aadhaar identity system and the Unified Payments Interface digital payments platform.
01/02/2023
Indonesia’s B2B e-commerce EdenFarm raises $13.5 million
Indonesian agritech EdenFarm has raised USD 13.5 million in a pre-series B round led by Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi (TMI) Ventures, the venture capital arm of mobile operator Telkomsel. Other investors are AppWorks, AC Ventures, and Capria Ventures. The start-up will use the funding to improve its solution and support national expansion beyond the island of Java. Established in 2017, EdenFarm is a B2B e-commerce platform linking farmers with restaurants, caterers, street vendors, and start-up partners. EdenFarm states that it has 5,500+ farmer partners and 50,000 B2B customers. It has to date raised USD 32.5 million, having closed a USD 19.5 million series A round in late 2021.
01/02/2023
Heifer International awards $1.5 million to three African agritechs
Kenya’s DigiCow, Nigeria’s Thrive Agric and Botswana’s Brastorne are the winners of the AYuTe Africa Challenge, an initiative by NGO Heifer International. The start-ups will receive a total of USD 1.5 million in grants and mentorship to help them scale up. DigiCow is a mobile app by Farmingtech Solutions, a company that started operations in 2016. It provides advisory to dairy farmers and digitises farming records. Founded in 2017, Thrive Agric has an end-to-end solution that digitises the agricultural value chain, from input financing to agri advisory and market access. Just in December, Thrive Agric won the USD 100,000 grand prize of the Visa Everywhere Initiative 2022. Founded in 2013, Brastorne has a solution named mAgri that gives farmers access to advisory, markets, and short-term finance over basic phones.
06/02/2023
India’s WayCool to expand to Kenya with CENSA platform
Indian B2B agri e-commerce platform WayCool has announced plans to enter the Kenyan market through its arm CensaNext Systems. Censa has an AI and IoT powered software as a service (SaaS) platform that brings real time visibility across agricultural value chains, including planning, growing, managing inventory, sales, distribution and credit management. In India, Censa has sourced produce from 200,000 farmers, including those aggregated by Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). Founded in July 2015, WayCool is the third largest digital marketplace in India, operating in staples such as rice, pulses, wheat, flour, and dairy. It connects farmers with 18,900 buyers. To date, WayCool has raised USD 404 million, according to Crunchbase.
In other news…
30/01/2023
Digital Agri Hub commences new phase with Wageningen University
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) has announced that the Digital Agri Hub has completed the incubation period and is starting a new phase as an independent entity under the sole supervision of the university. The Digital Agri Hub is an online knowledge platform and database tracking 800+ digital agriculture solutions for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries. It was launched at the end of 2021 by Wageningen University & Research in collaboration with the GSMA, Grameen Foundation and the Netherlands Advisory Board on impact investing (NAB), with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, FCDO and USAID. After completing the incubation period, the Digital Agri Hub will continue generating insights on digital agriculture and support matchmaking between start-ups and investors.
30/01/2023
Morocco’s agritech SafeTrack selected for Africa Startup Initiative Programme
Morocco’s SafeTrack is the only agritech within the eleven startups selected by The Africa Startup Initiative Programme (ASIP), an acceleration programme backed by pan-African telecoms company Telecel. Established in 2019, SafeTrack has an Internet of Things (IoT) based irrigation solution that allows a 75% reduction in water consumption. Farmers access the solution, which supports geolocation, surveillance and monitoring, via the web and a dedicated app. ASIP participants will receive three-month coaching support to accelerate their growth and benefits worth USD 750,000.
01/02/2023
WFP’s Agricultural Innovation for Climate Resilience Programme open for applications
The World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator and the German Development Agency (GIZ) have opened applications for the Agricultural Innovation for Climate Resilience Programme (AICR). The programme is looking for early-stage ventures that are building value for social impact and that provide scalable digital innovations supporting farmers and other agriculture stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Selected start-ups will be able to apply for the WFP Sprint Programme, a 6- to 9-month acceleration programme offering support from the WFP Innovation Accelerator, mentorship, and up to USD 150,000 in equity-free funding. Countries of interest are Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar. Applications are open until 1 March.
02/02/2023
Egypt’s FreshSource and Zambia’s Hrvst to pitch at Africa Tech Summit
Egypt’s FreshSource and Zambia’s Aiponics, with its app Hrvst, are the two agritechs out of 14 start-up finalists who will pitch their solutions in front of investors at the Africa Tech Summit, in Nairobi on 15-16 February. Launched in 2002, Aiponics’ digital marketplace Hrvst connects farmers with restaurants and consumers. Established in 2019, FreshSource is an agri supply chain platform that connects farmers to B2B buyers and provides access to finance and inputs. The event’s Pitch Live competition, now in its fifth edition, showcases 3+ years old start-ups from sectors such as fintech, agritech and healthtech to an audience of 1,000+ investors, corporates and delegates.
06/02/2023
eFishery targets new funding for international expansion
According to reports, Indonesia’s aquaculture start-up eFishery is raising new funds from venture capitalist firms as well as private equity firms, including existing investors. The start-up is rumoured to target between USD 100 and 150 million, as it seeks to expand its business internationally primarily in the US market, which accounts for 80% of the start-up’s shrimps export. Only last October, eFishery secured USD 32 million debt funding from DBS Bank Indonesia. Founded in 2013, eFishery has to date secured USD 142.9 million in funding.