Apollo Agriculture, the Kenyan agri-tech startup has secured a US$6 million Series A funding round to continue rapidly scaling by partnering with more farmers, expanding its product offerings, and growing its team.
“We are incredibly excited to bring together a world-class group of investors, with expertise across financial services and agriculture, to help power Apollo’s growth in the coming years,” said Eli Pollak, Apollo’s chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder.
Here Is What You Need To Know
- This funding round was led by Anthemis Exponential Ventures with participation from Leaps by Bayer, Flourish Ventures, Sage Hill Capital, To Ventures Food, Accion Venture Lab and Newid Capital, among others.
- Apollo has already partnered with close to 25,000 farmers so far in 2020.
“Our mission is more important than ever in the context of COVID-19, when health risks, supply chain disruptions, and reduced mobility threaten food security for millions globally. Our digital model has enabled us to continue partnering with farmers to produce more food, despite the unprecedented disruptions of COVID-19,” said Eli.
Why The Investors Invested
Vica Manos, partner at Anthemis, said the Apollo Agriculture team was solving a massive gap in the agricultural space by helping small-scale farmers turn their daily labour into profitable businesses.
“We are very excited to back the Apollo team on their journey to change the lives of millions of farmers that have been overlooked by traditional financial services companies, by providing them with the right instruments, from optimized financing and farming tools to valuable farming advice. In light of the global pandemic, their mission is more urgent than ever,” he said.
Read also: Would The Coronavirus Epidemic Affect Fund Raising For African Startups In 2020?
A Look At What Apollo Agriculture Does
- Based in Nairobi, Apollo Agriculture is a commercial farming platform for small-scale farmers that uses machine learning and automated operations technology to help them access everything they need to maximise their profitability, from financing and insurance, to farming products and optimised advice.
- Benjamin Njenga, Apollo’s chief customer officer and co-founder, described the opportunity.
“Every farmer, everywhere, deserves the opportunity to farm profitably, and that is not the norm today. There are more than 500 million small-scale farmers globally, and average farm yields per acre across Africa are only 10–20 per cent of those in North America. Apollo exists to change that. We partner with farmers to maximise their farm productivity and profitability,” he said.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.