What would the Agricultural sector look like today without Agritech startups? There’d be a huge gap I’d say.
This is in terms of decentralization of raw materials for production, limited financial access, inadequate equipment and many more challenges.
Today, our spotlight shines brightly on some Agritech startups with known records of working to ensure the Agricultural sector thrives in Nigeria, with both farmers, consumers and all stakeholders benefiting from their efforts.
Not limited to these, they include:
1. ThriveAgric
ThriveAgric is one of the interesting Agritech startups that provides finance to smallholder farmers, but doesn’t stop there. The startup provides them with the best practices needed for their businesses to scale, including access to sell to local and global markets, putting food security at the fore. How nice…
Having onboarded over 400,000 farmers, ThriveAgric has enabled the production and trading of 800,000+ grains, with more than 400,000 hectares of land cultivated. An intriguing aspect is that it has created over 9,000 jobs, helping reduce the big issue of unemployment in Nigeria.
From production to financing, processing and consumption, ThriveAgric’s got the agricultural sector.
2. Releaf
Just yesterday, Releaf raised $3.3 million pre-Series A round and this was to deepen its stand even more as one of the leading Agritech startups in its focus sector.
Over the last few years, Releaf has built high-end technology — including Kraken — to solve the agricultural problems in Nigeria. The startup keeps finding ways to make these technologies better.
With the pre-Series A fund raises, it seeks to launch even more products such as Kraken II, which is mobile and more affordable than the initial palm nut de-sheller, eliminating over 80% of margin-eroding costs. The startup will also launch SITE, a geospatial mapping application that discloses food processing assets.
Not limited to the above, Releaf also provides capital to farmers and food factories, helping the purchase require tools and ensure the seamless running of their day-to-day operations.
3. Agricorp
Agricorp is majorly focused on spice production and exportation, with the healthy ginger being a major. Following its success over the years, seeing a 400% capacity growth just within three years of existence, the startup expanded its focus to include poultry production, processing and distribution.
Its semi-mechanized processing facility located in Kaduna can be used to process over 5,000MT of ginger annually. The startup provides employment opportunities to a large population from all classes and supports farmers financially and in other areas.
Its medium-scale 0.5MT/hour integrated spices processing equipment is used in the production of clean fresh ginger, dried ginger, ginger powder, dehydrated garlic powder, chilli powder, dehydrated onion powder, and lime powder.
4. Vendease
Vendease founders — Wale Oyepeju, Tunde Kara, Olumide Fayankin and Gatumi Aliyu
Vendease is an Agritech startup that breaks barriers in the supply chain between food businesses like restaurants and farmers/manufacturers.
How does this work? The startup leverages a technology where customers can place orders, and all possible suppliers are shown. The system assigns the order to the supplier with the best pricing and quality, with delivery within 24 hours. The good thing is that all supplies can be gotten from a single source.
Vendease will handle all your procurement without fear of disappointment and also provide analytics to help users track spends. To provide better services, it has built a series of stacks including logistics, storage, payments, inventory management, embedded finance. Users can buy now and opt to pay within 14 days.
5. Hello Tractor
Just as the name implies, Hello Tractor connects tractor owners to smallholder farmers, providing income to the owners and enabling farmers carry out related activities effectively, thereby enhancing production yield.
The startup also ensures the tracking and management of the tractor fleet remotely, with bookings managed via mobile and web applications. So there’s no fear of losing your tractor.
Interestingly, the startup also helps users access innovative pay-as-you-go financing, helping them grow their own fleet.
6. Farmcrowdy
Sustainability being its goal, Farmcrowdy provides the means for key players in the food value chain to maximum output and yield “untapped profits” and provides more efficient food distribution channels.
Farmcrowdy also makes life easy for farmers to an extent, providing finances needed for growth, a major issue faced in the sector.
Its tech-enabled B2B retail platform, FC Shops helps small retailers source their inventory, accessing a wide variety of FMCG goods at wholesale prices, while its FC Foods is a one-stop digital marketplace for trading raw agro-products, inputs and commodities.
7. Zowasel
Making it easy for traders to access local and international markets, as well as credit to finance, Zowasel offers easy, fast accessible technology to increase farmers’ productivity, provide quality crops and increase revenues.
The startup leverages data science and artificial intelligence to facilitate its efforts, helping smallholder farmers from seed planting stage to market reach.
In its endeavors to provide finances for farmers, Zowasel has partnered with several financial institutions including VBank and SimpliFi, and has collaborated with several organizations to facilitate affordable agricultural machinery for smallholder farmers.
8. Afrimash
Afrimash specializes in sales of agricultural products. It is a digital marketplace which helps farmers reach maximum profitability.
The sustainability and profitability driven Agritech startup connects farmers to quality inputs and helps them build their digital identities to enable better access to financial support. It also provides access to consultants via mobile channels or online to improve productivity.
To achieve its goal, the startup has partnered with manufacturers, importers, and wholesalers of quality items to create a marketplace where they sell their products to farmers. Its secure payment systems stimulates the delivery of ordered items directly to farmers wherever they are in Nigeria.
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