Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 19 Feb #3
Kenya starts phase two of agri information system, Apollo gets $9.5 million DFC loan, BhartiAgri bags $1.7 million, agritech ticket size on the rise in Africa
12/02/23
Kenya launches phase two of national agriculture information system
Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has launched phase two roll-out of the Kenya Integrated Agriculture Management Information System (KIAMIS), aimed at registering farmers and establishing a national central farmer’s database. A main use case for KIAMIS is to assist the ministry in disbursing subsidies to 4.2 million validated farmers across the country’s 47 counties. KIAMIS is a key element of the Agriculture Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS), 2019 – 2029. Kenya is being aided in this effort by the Swedish government through a USD 5.2 million grant to support technical assistance from FAO.
14/02/23
Apollo Agriculture receives $9.5 million loan from DFC
Kenya-based agritech Apollo Agriculture has announced that it will receive a 10-year USD 9.5 million loan from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The loan will allow the company to continue its expansion across Africa, after launching in Zambia in 2022. Apollo’s core offering is its product and financing platform for smallholder farmers, including quality agricultural inputs, insurance and optimised agricultural advice. Apollo Agriculture states that it has to date reached more than 170,000 farmers, nearly half of them female farmers. The company also states that its solution supports crop yield increases by approximately 2.0-2.5x times. Founded in 2016, Apollo Agriculture has to date raised USD 61.7 million, according to Crunchbase.
13/02/2023
India’s BhartiAgri raises $1.7 million
Indian agritech BharatAgri has raised USD 1.6m in an extended Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Capria Ventures with participation from Omnivore, India Quotient, 021 Capital, Ratnagiri Impex, and Sanjiv Rangrass. The funds will be used to expand the company’s AI-driven market linkages platform Krushidukan, which offers personalised advice on agricultural inputs. Besides the market linkages platform, BharatAgri offers paid subscriptions for its scientific agriculture advisory solution. It claims to have worked with over 100,000 farmers in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. Established in 2017, BharatAgri has to date raised USD 22.7 million, according to Crunchbase.
14/02/23
Average investment in African agritechs on the rise
The average agritech round size in Africa was USD 5,775,000 in 2022, up from USD 4,322,773 in 2021. The data comes from the eight edition of the annual African Tech Startups Funding Report by news and research portal Disrupt Africa. The study also found that twenty-three African agritech startups raised funding in 2022, accounting for 3.6 per cent of the total of 633 regional startups, which raised investment. Funding is heavily concentrated on a small number of companies. Kenya’s Apollo Agriculture and Nigeria’s ThriveAgric accounted for over 80 per cent of total funds raised. Nigeria and Kenya are the main agritech markets in the region, accounting for 93.5 per cent of total funding between them.
In other news…
12/02/2023
Vietnam’s Koina bags $1 million for farmer platform
Agritech startup Koina has raised USD 1 million from VinaCapital Ventures, the technology-focused venture capital arm of Vietnamese investment management firm VinaCapital Group. The new funding will help the company expand sales channels and invest in the technology supporting its Farmer Platform, which allows farmers to access loans, pricing information and agricultural advisory. Established in 2021 by a group of former Grab executives, Koina describes itself as a data driven farm-to-business agriculture technology platform.
15/02/23
Digital Green to support Indian government for extension platform
The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare of India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NGO Digital Green to build a national level digital extension platform. The platform will host a digital library of curated multi-format multi-lingual content and help extension workers access and deliver curated content to farmers. It will also upskill the network of extension workers (200,000+) through certified online courses. The platform is one of the components of the Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture announced in the recent Union Budget. Digital Green is a global development organisation that started in 2006 as an incubation project within Microsoft Research. It has to date reached over 2.5 million farmers.
12/02/23
Kenya’s Agrvision partners for AI-based crop monitoring
Kenyan agritech startup Agrvision, a precision agriculture company, has partnered with EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA), a US-based provider of AI-powered satellite imagery analytics solutions in agriculture and forestry. Agrvision plans to use the EOSDA Crop Monitoring platform to deliver accurate data for crop classification and yield prediction. The startup will provide consultancy services to regional governments, NGOs, farming cooperatives, input suppliers, food producers, and agribusinesses. Established in 2022, Agrvision leverages AI/ML to analyse big data in agriculture and provide precise information about fields, crops and forests.