Tag: smallholder

Agricorp is spicing things up for Nigerian farmers following $17.5m funding

October 18, 2021

The Lagos-based startup is connecting local smallholder farmers to the international spice markets.

Q&A: How Pula is breaking through crop insurance barriers to protect Africa’s farmers

October 13, 2021

The Kenyan startup is building a tech bridge between insurance companies and millions of smallholder farmers to protect them from climate change.

Women entrepreneurs are unlocking value in Africa’s overlooked agrifood resources

October 5, 2021

Talmond, Safi Organics, and Yanaya are among Africa’s women-led businesses identifying untapped resources to boost farmer incomes and cultivate healthy livelihoods.

Meet the founder: Releaf’s Ikenna Nzewi wants Nigerian palm oil to be the next big thing

September 23, 2021

Releaf recently raised $4.2 million to build palm oil processing facilities across Nigeria that it claims can boost the sector’s productivity 200x.

Acumen’s new ag fund ushers commercial capital to farmers’ fight against climate change

September 16, 2021

The impact investor aims to prove the commercial “climate resilience” opportunity in African agtech ventures like Kenya’s SunCulture and Nigeria’s Tomato Jos.

Brief: Pinduoduo reports first-ever profitable quarter; commits $1.5bn to ag development

August 27, 2021

The e-commerce company said it’ll re-invest its profits into a new ‘non-commercial’ initiative aimed at promoting agtech, digitalization, and rural development in China.

GROW startups Mayani, Rubilabs & S4S show 3 different ways for tech to uplift smallholder farmers

July 16, 2021

The trio are using tech to help the world’s poorest farmers improve their yields and increase their incomes.

Indian fish farmer network Aquaconnect raises $4m from AgFunder, others

July 12, 2021

The Chennai-based startup will use the pre-Series A funds to strengthen its fintech offering, while also boosting the volume of seafood exports it handles.

After overtaking Alibaba, ag marketplace Pinduoduo is focusing on foodtech to hit profitability

July 5, 2021

Having overtaken e-commerce behemoth Alibaba on the active buyers front, Pinduoduo’s looking upstream at alt-protein and logistics tech, its sustainability head tells AFN.

OneSoil raises $5m to expand services in Europe, North America

April 21, 2021

OneSoil uses machine learning and satellite imagery to offer agricultural analytics and field insights for farmers at no cost.

Agrim is a B2B online marketplace for ag inputs in India

Indian inputs platform sees shortcut to success with focus on midstream pain point

March 23, 2021

“If I tell suppliers I have 25% of retailers on my platform, that’s a very solid proposition compared to 5% of farmers,” Agrim co-founder Mukul Garg tells AFN.

Bill Gates tells Reddit why he’s bought so much farmland

March 22, 2021

The Microsoft co-founder commented on the acquisitions for the first time since he and wife Melinda were revealed as the top private farmland owners in the US earlier this year.

Brief: Chinese dronemaker XAG raises $46m

March 17, 2021

This latest injection follows a $182 million round late last year which was co-led by Baidu Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund II.

Wefarm gets $11m Series A+ funding, upgrades SMS service to online platform

March 9, 2021

The UK-based network for smallholders secured funding from new and existing investors including AgFunder, Octopus Ventures, and Rabo Frontier Ventures.

‘Wine-ification of coffee’ startup Demetria comes out of stealth with $3m seed funding

March 2, 2021

Demetria is replacing the antiquated coffee quality assessment process by using AI and near-infrared technology to scan beans before they’re brewed.

Provivi raises $10m from Gates Foundation to bring insect pheromone tech to smallholder farmers

February 24, 2021

Provivi will use the funds to sell its pheremone-based pest control products to smallholder farmers in Kenya, Bangladesh, and India at cost.

DeHaat acquires Farm Guide to bolster platform with ‘unique’ smallholding spatial dataset

February 22, 2021

With this aqui-hire, DeHaat – which serves over 380,000 farmers across India – will be able to add financial services for farmers to its platform.

Thai precision ag startup ListenField gets strategic backing from Kubota

February 16, 2021

ListenField’s API ecosystem combines satellite, weather, and in-field data with crop modeling, phenology, and genotype selection to improve yields for rice and other crops.

50 years young: Japfa’s CEO on how the agrifood giant is putting trust in tech for its golden anniversary

February 4, 2021

Japfa aims for “viable solutions that improve the production of quality proteins and, ultimately, the nutrition of millions of people,” says Tan Yong Nang.

Ag marketplace DeHaat banks $30m in Naspers-led Series C round

January 19, 2021

The Indian startup plans to build out its lending capabilities, as well as adding insurance and crop spraying to its roster of farmer-focused services.