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Agri-Fintech Firm Apollo Agriculture Secures $10M to Boost Small-Scale Farming in Kenya

January 26, 2024

Swedfund, Sweden’s development financier, has committed to supporting Apollo Agriculture, an agri-fintech company based in Kenya, with a substantial loan of USD 5 million. This investment marks a significant step in promoting sustainable agriculture, enhancing food security, and fostering technological advancements in small-scale farming.

Apollo Agriculture, led by CEO Eli Pollak, specializes in delivering agricultural products such as seeds and fertilizer to small-scale farmers. The investment from Swedfund, accompanied by another USD 5 million contribution from ImpactConnect, a Team Europe partner, brings the total investment to USD 10 million. Swedfund’s CEO, Maria Håkansson, stated, “The food sector will be a growing sector for us in the future,” emphasizing the importance of this collaboration within the Global Gateway strategy.

The loan from Swedfund is provided with a 50% guarantee from the European Union under the EFSD+ framework. This marks the first instance of Swedfund utilizing an EU guarantee within the Global Gateway strategy, aligning with the Climate and Energy investment priority.

Apollo Agriculture’s primary focus is on maize cultivation, a staple food in Kenya, and the most common crop for small-scale farmers. With a network of around 7,000 sales agents and over 350,000 farmers as customers, Apollo aims to transform small-scale agriculture through a comprehensive approach encompassing distribution, advice, insurance, and financing.

Kenya faces significant challenges due to climate change, making it vulnerable to unpredictable weather patterns. To address this, Apollo Agriculture incorporates climate-smart measures such as drought-tolerant seeds, blended fertilizer, insurance, agronomic education, and certifications. These measures play a vital role in promoting resilience and sustainability among small-scale farmers, contributing to food security and climate change mitigation.

Eli Pollak, CEO of Apollo Agriculture, expressed gratitude for the partnership with Swedfund, highlighting that this loan is a crucial step towards realizing their vision of transforming small-scale agriculture. The funds will enable Apollo to expand its reach and make a more significant impact on farmers’ lives.

The collaboration between Swedfund, ImpactConnect, and Apollo Agriculture not only emphasizes responsible investments and sustainable development but also aligns with the EU’s Global Gateway strategy. This strategy aims to mobilize €300 billion in investments between 2021 and 2027 to reduce risks for private sector investments in partner countries.

Swedfund’s investment in Apollo Agriculture is poised to create more employment opportunities, improve agricultural production, and drive the adoption of new technology in small-scale farming. As both entities work together to enhance food security and access to financing for farmers in Kenya, the partnership stands as a beacon for innovative solutions in the field of agri-fintech, contributing to a more sustainable and prosperous future for the agricultural sector in the region.

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard.

Kenyan Agritech Startup Apollo Agriculture Raises $6m Series A To further Scale Its Business

May 21, 2020

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.