emerging solutions

Kenya: Agritech firms whet funders’ appetite for ‘highly untapped’ sector

By Morris Kiruga

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Posted on May 13, 2022 12:52

 © Waki Munyalo watches as Pula field officer Ruth Wambua updates her crop details in an app after a harvest insured by Pula, an agricultural insurance company that helps small-scale farmers manage the risk associated with extreme climate conditions, in Kitui county, Kenya, March 17, 2021. Picture taken March 17, 2021. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi
Waki Munyalo watches as Pula field officer Ruth Wambua updates her crop details in an app after a harvest insured by Pula, an agricultural insurance company that helps small-scale farmers manage the risk associated with extreme climate conditions, in Kitui county, Kenya, March 17, 2021. Picture taken March 17, 2021. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi

In March, Apollo Agriculture – a tech company based in Nairobi that helps small-scale farmers maximize profits – closed its Series B equity funding round, having raised $40m. In total, the company has raised $52.5m and received $16m in debt – making it one of the highest funded agritech startups in Kenya.

Four months earlier, another major startup in the same sector, Twiga Foods – which uses technology to build supply chains in food and retail distribution – raised $50m in its latest funding round. In total, the company has raised more than $100m in debt and equity, having raised $30m in its series B round in 2019. The startup’s founders, Grant Brooke and Peter Njonjo have plans to expand into the rest of the continent.

Apollo Agriculture and Twiga Foods are just two Kenyan companies in a long line of agritech businesses searching for funds to help them grow. Forestry agribusiness Komaza has raised $38m since it was founded in 2006. iProcure, which focuses on optimising rural supply chains, has raised $5.5m since it was founded in 2013 and in 2021, online to offline marketplace platform ShambaPride raised $1.1m. In April, social commerce group-buying platform Tushop raised $3m to fund

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