Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 31 Oct #70
A big week for agritech in LMICs with 4 new raises and a total of $68M funding going to startups in India, Indonesia and Ghana
23/10/24
Stellaps bags $26M to scale operations in India’s dairy sector
Indian dairy-tech startup Stellaps has raised USD 26 million in Series C funding, a mix of equity and debt financing. The round saw the participation of Stellaps’ existing investors including VC Blume Ventures and Omnivore, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with new investor Miledeep Capital. Debt funding came from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The cash injection will be used to scale operations, expand sustainable dairy products in India, and strengthen exports.
Stellaps is an end-to-end dairy value chain platform that utilises AI and IoT to optimise the dairy ecosystem. Its mooON app and mooPay solutions help farmers monitor cattle health, improve milk quality, and receive payments to their bank accounts. Its core users are small to marginal farmers. Alongside farmers, dairy processors and cooperatives use Stellapps' platform for data collection, analytics, and monitoring to ensure efficient milk procurement and transparency in the supply chain. The startup charges subscription fees to dairy processors and cooperatives. Stellapps states that its dairy-tech is deployed in +42,000 villages, and that it is impacting 3.5 million farmers. Founded in 2011, the company has raised USD 50 million to date.
28/10/24
Oyster Agribusiness bags $2M to scale climate smart solution in Ghana
Ghanaian agritech start-up Oyster Agribusiness has raised USD 2 million to expand operations. Investors include development finance institution RDF Ghana LBG, the Social Enterprise Fund for Agriculture in Africa (SEFAA Fund), an impact-first fund established by private investment firm Sahel Capital, and nonprofit Root Capital. The fundraising process was led by Pangea Africa, a business development service provider. Established in 2018, Oyster Agribusiness is a climate-smart agriculture company supporting smallholder farmers through technology-based, sustainable farming solutions. The startup provides farmers with inputs, agronomic advisory and market linkages. The company states that in the past five years it has reached 4,500 farmers. This funding round follows the USD 310,000 raise from Root Capital (grant and debt funding) in August 2023.
Photo credit: Oyster Agribusiness
28/10/24
Arya.ag raises $19.8M to scale agri e-commerce in India
Indian agritech Arya.ag, a prominent B2B market linkage platform for the grain value chain, has raised USD 19.8 million (debt funding) from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to expand its agri-commerce solutions. In a statement, the startup said that it will focus on enhancing payment security and on making transactions more transparent. Through its market linkage platform, Arya.ag connects farmers and farmer producing organisations (FPOs) directly to buyers across India. Farmers also receive warehousing services, fumigation and quality testing services. In addition, the platform embeds financial services, such as farmer loans against their stored commodity in the platform. Established in 2013, Arya.ag operates +12,000 warehouses. Just in July this year, the agritech secured USD 29.2 million in a round led by existing investors, including Asia Impact and Quona Capital.
29/10/24
Indonesia’s Chickin secures $20M to grow digital solution for poultry farmers
Indonesian agritech startup Chickin has raised $20 million in Series A+ funding. This investment round was led by Granite Asia, East Ventures, Integra Partners, Asian Development Bank (ADB), 500 Southeast Asia, Heracles, and others. It combines USD 15 million in equity and USD 5 million in debt. Established in 2020, Chickin supports small to medium poultry farmers, its primary customers, with a farm management app that offers data insights to drive productivity and financial stability. The solution also offers IoT-based monitoring of farming operations and supports contract farming. Key farmer challenges addresses by Chickin include limited capital, unpredictable pricing, and a lack of access to modern farming technology. Chickin plans to use the funds to expand production capacity, and develop advanced digital solutions, including those leveraging IoT, for greater operational efficiency.
In other news:
17/10/24
Fashol partners with government to address middleman challenge in Bangladesh
In a LinkedIn article, Bangladeshi agritech startup Fashol has announced a partnership with the Ministry of Commerce and the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection to drive efficiencies in agricultural value chains and connect farmers more directly to markets. The main objective is to diminish the role of middlemen and to ensure fair prices for farmers and consumers. More efficient market linkages are also expected to reduce post-harvest losses and wastage. As part of the initiative, Fashol is deploying approximately 100 trucks across the main markets in the capital Dhaka markets to distribute vegetables at competitive market prices.
Photo credit: Fashol
Established in 2020, Fashol optimises the agricultural value chain by enabling smallholders to sell more directly to retailers via a digital platform. In addition, the start-up provides offline infrastructure such as distribution and processing centres, and collection hubs. As value added services, the company also provides to farmers agricultural advisory and telemedicine support. Fashol works with a network of +10,000 farmers and +5,000 retailers.
29/10/24
Solidaridad launches agritech tools for Sri Lanka’s tea value chain
Nonprofit Solidaridad is introducing a suite of agritech innovations for the tea value chain in Sri Lanka through a partnership with Indian agritech Demetrix InfoTech. The new tools include Agri-Met, a hyper-local weather station, Ballotronix, a tea leaf reader for quality control, and Soil-Probe, an instant soil analyser. These technologies have been implemented by local tea agribusiness Elpitiya Plantations, providing it with real-time data, enhancing decision-making and optimising crop management.
The objective is to empower smallholders and plantation managers with real-time, data-driven insights such a precise weather forecasting, accurate soil health analysis, and optimised tea leaf quality control. Besides Sri Lanka, Solidaridad works in other Asian markets including Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Myanmar. The NGO provides scalable and economically effective sustainability solutions in the agriculture and mining sectors in collaboration with governments, businesses and the community.