NIGERIA, 24 March 2022: ThriveAgric, an Abuja, Nigeria-based agtech company, raised USD 56.4m in debt funding. Investors included local commercial banks and institutional investors. The USAID-funded West Africa Trade and Investment provided USD 1.75m as a co-investment grant.

In addition to expanding into new African markets, including Ghana, Zambia and Kenya, the company intends to use the funds to grow its 200,000+ farmer base.

Through its proprietary technology, ThriveAgric empowers farmers in Nigeria to sell their products to FMCGs and food processors, facilitating their access to finance and improving productivity and sales to promote food security. ThriveAgric became fully operational in 2018 and is led by Uka Eje, CTO, Ayo Arikawe, CFO, and Michael Kadiri, Head of Risk Management and Compliance.

An agricultural operating system (AOS) works completely offline, sends text messages to farmers, and powers Android apps used by field agents to digitally collate creditworthy farmers and gather pertinent farm data.

Smallholder farmers in Africa are assisted by the company in producing high-quality grains. Harvests, including maize, rice and soybeans, are stored in many of the company’s 450+ warehouses in Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina states in Nigeria, before being commoditized and offered to local and global trade markets at a premium price.

ThriveAgric raised USD 9m in 2020. Within the past 12 months, the company's revenues have increased five-fold with farmer numbers increasing by 277 per cent year-over-year.

Image credit: premiumtimesng.com