KENYA, 22 March 2022: Apollo Agriculture, a Kenya-based technology company that offers market access and financial services to farmers, secured USD 40m in funding from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 which former will use the funds for expansion of its business.
In addition to Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst, other investors participated in the round.
Apollo is pushing to increase the number of clients on its platform and “invest in the products that take a farmer from farming for subsistence to farming as a business,” CEO Eli Pollak said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Global food consumption and the continent's population growth will boost agricultural production in Africa to USD 1 trillion within the next decade, according to Apollo. The company is planning to play a prominent role in the region's future by investing in systems to support agriculture.
“In the face of sustained macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, feeding the world is one of the most important challenges,” said Alexia Yannopoulos, an investment director at SoftBank Investment Advisers.
“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 are critical in supporting a more efficient and sustainable global food chain,” Alexia said.
Founded in 2019, Apollo is a commercial-farming platform that enables last-mile delivery of inputs and services to small-scale farmers using a network of over 5,000 agents. The company uses machine learning and satellite data technology for its input services to the over 100,000 farmers that have joined its platform since it was founded in 2019. It also provides them with financing and insurance services.
