Kenya-based agritech Apollo Agriculture, which helps farmers access high-quality farm inputs, financing and markets, plans to double the number of farmers it is serving by the end 2022 and to introduce other products that deliver more value per acre of land. This is after raising $40 million in Series B funding in the equity round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2.
Apollo uses the satellite imagery data of farms and AI to rate the credit-worthiness of farmers. It plans to use the new funding to refine its technology and deliver more products and services to farmers. Launched in 2016, the startup works with a network of agents, who recruit farmers and retailers to its platform.
Apollo Agriculture co-founder and CEO, Eli Pollak, while talking about their areas of priority told TechCrunch that, “We are continuing to invest in growing fast; serving more farmers, helping them grow their acreage and really hitting the acceleration on the business. And so that’ll be both continued expansion across Kenya but also expansion into new markets.”
The agritech is scouting for growth opportunities in East and West Africa.
“We are also continuing to develop products that deliver more value per acre. That could be new crops that enable customers to earn more money,” said Pollak, who co-founded Apollo with Benjamin Njenga and Earl St Sauver.
Apollo started off by working with maize farmers but helping them diversify to other high-yielding crops has been its area of focus.
“We began with maize. Maize is not perfect, but it has a profound advantage, which is that nearly every farmer plants across East Africa. This gives us a place where we can earn farmer’s trust and we can deliver value immediately,” he said.
“We believe that the pathway from subsistence farming to farming as a business means partnering with that farmer and using our machine learning models to identify the farmers with the best prospects of graduating to higher-profitability crops.”
By the end of last year, Apollo had worked with 100,000 farmers, with plans to double the reach by the end of this year. It has a network of “over a thousand” retailers and 5,000 agents spread across the country.
The agents onboard farmers to the Apollo while retailers use the startup’s “checkout app” to handle point of sale, inventory, source wholesale orders and as access to trade credit.
Since the close of a $6 million series A in 2020, Pollak said Apollo has grown 10 times, accelerated by product financing. The agritech has also received over $16 million in debt-funding over the years for onward lending.
Apollo started off by working with maize farmers but is now helping them diversify to other high-yielding crops. Image Credits: Zafaran Photography
Apollo’s products include insurance – which is offered by its partners including Pula, the Kenya-based insurtech.
“We have designed our business to strengthen farming systems, and if you think about climate change, we bundle insurance with every credit we sell to protect the borrower,” said Pollak.
Its latest funding round included participation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, CDC, and existing investors including Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, SBI, Breyer Capital, and TO Ventures Food.
SoftBank Investment investment director, AdvisersAlexia Yannopoulos, said, “in the face of sustained macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, feeding the world is one of the most important challenges facing society. Apollo’s platform offers a one stop shop solution to help small-scale farmers in emerging regions to improve crop and livestock outputs. Embedding valuable financial services like credit, insurance and advice into the supply chain is critical in supporting a more efficient and sustainable global food chain.”
Pollak and Earl had previously worked at The Climate Corporation in the US, where they helped farmers use data in making production decisions. With an urge to create a bigger impact, they launched Apollo to help farmers outside the US to more than double their output, and shift from subsistence to commercial farming.
The agriculture sector contributes 26% of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employs over 40% of the country’s population and accounts for 65% of its export earnings. It is this importance to the country’s economic livelihood that makes the sector a key area of focus for innovators. Other agritechs that are already creating ripples in the market include Twiga, the B2B supply-chain firm and iProcure, a farm input procurement and last-mile distribution service platform.
Keep up the wonderful piece of work, I read few blog posts on this web site and I think that your web blog is very interesting and contains sets of excellent info .
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is magnificent blog. A great read. I will definitely be back.
great publish, very informative. I ponder why the other specialists of this sector don’t realize this. You must continue your writing. I’m sure, you have a great readers’ base already!
It?¦s truly a great and useful piece of information. I am happy that you shared this useful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
You really make it appear so easy together with your presentation however I in finding this topic to be actually something that I feel I’d never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me. I’m having a look ahead to your subsequent submit, I will try to get the hang of it!
I am continually invstigating online for tips that can benefit me. Thank you!
certainly like your website however you have to test the spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling issues and I in finding it very bothersome to inform the truth nevertheless I’ll surely come again again.
It¦s really a nice and useful piece of information. I¦m satisfied that you shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for giving everyone remarkably terrific chance to check tips from this web site. It is usually very enjoyable and as well , jam-packed with amusement for me personally and my office fellow workers to search your web site at the least three times every week to find out the latest secrets you have got. And indeed, I am certainly motivated considering the great methods you serve. Certain 1 points on this page are definitely the most suitable we have ever had.
My brother suggested I would possibly like this web site. He was entirely right. This submit actually made my day. You cann’t consider simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
Viagra can cause palpitations, indigestion, dizziness, flushing, headaches, etc., so you must take 25mg at the time of initial use and check whether it suits you.정품비아그라
비아그라구매사이트 100%해택,사은품 증정,이벤트 하나사면 하나 더,2022년 특별 이벤트1+1.
Very interesting information!Perfect just what I was looking for!
Hi, Neat post. There is an issue with your web site in internet explorer, might check this… IE still is the market chief and a huge element of folks will miss your magnificent writing due to this problem.
F*ckin’ tremendous things here. I’m very satisfied to peer your post. Thank you a lot and i am taking a look forward to touch you. Will you kindly drop me a e-mail?
WONDERFUL Post.thanks for share..more wait .. …
I used to be very pleased to search out this internet-site.I wished to thanks on your time for this excellent learn!! I undoubtedly enjoying each little little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post.
I am impressed with this site, real I am a fan.
Great work! This is the type of info that should be shared around the net. Shame on Google for not positioning this post higher! Come on over and visit my website . Thanks =)
Very interesting info !Perfect just what I was looking for!
Thankyou for helping out, wonderful info .
Hi I am so happy I found your site, I really found you by error, while I was looking on Bing for something else, Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say many thanks for a fantastic post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it all at the minute but I have saved it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the superb job.
I have been exploring for a bit for any high-quality articles or blog posts on this kind of area . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this website. Reading this information So i am happy to convey that I have a very good uncanny feeling I discovered just what I needed. I most certainly will make certain to do not forget this web site and give it a glance regularly.
I’m not sure where you are getting your information, but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more. Thanks for great info I was looking for this information for my mission.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is magnificent blog. An excellent read. I will definitely be back.
I have read a few good stuff here. Definitely worth bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how much effort you put to make such a excellent informative website.
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is fantastic blog. A fantastic read. I will certainly be back.
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I will be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again very soon!
Good write-up, I?¦m normal visitor of one?¦s web site, maintain up the nice operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a lengthy time.
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I do not know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
I’ll immediately grab your rss as I can not find your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly let me know in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.
Hi there! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
This is a topic close to my heart cheers, where are your contact details though?