Ghanaian agtech farmerline has secured $1.5 million fairness funding from Dutch influence investor Oikocredit in its second shut of the pre-series A spherical. The new funding brings the full quantity raised within the spherical to $14.4 million, together with $6.4 debt funding.
The funding comes at a time when Farmerline, which has operations throughout Ghana, is organising store in Ivory Coast because it continues its enlargement throughout West Africa.
Founded in 2013 by Alloysius Attah and Emmanuel Owusu AddaiFarmerline works by way of agro-dealers, who’re often the primary level of information for farmers, in guaranteeing entry to high-quality provides, together with fertilizer and seeds.
The accomplice retailers use the startups Mergdata, a proprietary AI know-how platform for provide chain intelligence, to digitize the farmers they serve, and to generate the information required to foretell the demand of farm provides and forestall stock-outs. It additionally makes use of that information to find out the quantity of enterprise enlargement credit score to present to agro-dealers.
With the assist of Oikocredit alongside our first-round funders, our distribution, logistics and financing providers will proceed not solely in Ghana but in addition in Ivory Coast the place we’ve got not too long ago begun the method of increasing our group, stated Attah in an announcement.
In a previous interview, Attah instructed TechCrunch that Farmerline is increasing its bodily infrastructure like warehouses and distribution networks to make it a market that enables the quicker motion of provides to and from rural areas. The logistics community additionally helps farmers to rapidly entry markets for higher incomes and to scale back post-harvest losses and waste.
Farmerline stated it’s planning on strengthening its provide chain for agribusinesses to scale back the price of farming and improve yield for farmers on the continent by way of the deployment of AI know-how and native infrastructure.
As fertilizer costs greater than quadruple and the battle in Ukraine compounds world meals safety challenges, this funding is essential, it stated.
Farmerline claimed to have to date financed round $18 million price of inputs and crops by way of franchise store alliances with agribusinesses and enter sellers.
The startup targets to achieve 300,000 farmers in 2022, a virtually 400% improve in progress in comparison with final yr, when it doubled its direct-reach to 79,000 farmers, up from 36,000 in 2020 and eight,000 in 2019.
Oikocredits fairness officer, Mila Georgieva, stated, The dangerous influence of rocketing fertiliser prices on smallholder farmers in Africa is evident. With our funding in Farmerline, we’re supporting these most affected by the value volatility. Our investments within the agriculture sector are on the core of Oikocredits work as a social influence investor, and we’ve got already recognized synergies with different portfolio firms. We are thrilled to assist Farmerline Group and smallholder communities throughout Ghana and Ivory Coast.
Farmerlines different fairness buyers embody Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial improvement financial institution, and Greater Impact Foundation.
