Food & AgricultureFunding

Ghanaian Agtech, Farmerline Secures $12.9m in Pre-Series A and Debt Funding Round

Story Highlights
  • The capital will be used by Farmerline to strengthen its supply chain for agribusinesses, reduce the cost of farming, and increase yield for farmers on the continent through the deployment of AI technology and local infrastructure

Farmerline Group, the continent’s Amazon for African farmers, has secured a US$6.4 million Pre-Series A investment and $6.5 million debt.

The capital will be used by Farmerline to strengthen its supply chain for agribusinesses, reduce the cost of farming, and increase yield for farmers on the continent through the deployment of AI technology and local infrastructure.

The US$6.4 million Pre-Series A investment, led by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, is Farmerline’s first equity raise since launching with a US$600 grant almost a decade ago. Greater Impact Foundation also participated in the equity round. 

To date, the company has digitized over 1 million farmers through partnerships across 26 countries; employed over 200 people in Ghana; and evolved Mergdata into an AI-powered super-platform for supply chain intelligence like crop yield prediction, fertilizer demand forecasting, product traceability, and Agribusiness credit scoring for asset and fertilizer financing.

Investors included in the $6.5 million debt include DEG, Rabobank, Ceniarth, Rippleworks, Mulago Foundation, Whole Planet Foundation, Netri Foundation and Kiva.

Today, farmers feed one-third of the world and will need to increase production by 70% to cater for nine billion people by 2050. Currently, post-harvest losses of food cereals in Sub-Saharan Africa are estimated at $4 billion due to factors such as access to timely agronomic education. Meanwhile, fertilizer use is 14kg per hectare as compared to 120kg for their counterparts globally.

In recent times, Africa’s agribusiness sector has been coined the ‘new oil’ and is predicted to reach US$1 trillion by 2030. But the continent will need eight times more fertilizer and six times more improved seeds to realize its full agricultural potential.

Source
TechEconomy

Nichole Manhire

Is the media and brand manager at GFA News. She works very closely with editors and podcasters that contribute to telling the African business success story. For marketing and advertising send Nichole an email: nichole@getfundedafrica.com

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