After netting $13 million in April this year, Ghanaian agritech startup Farmerline has raised another $1.5 million in pre-series A funding round. The funding from social impact investor Oikocredit and other partners will be used to accelerate the company’s plans to expand into francophone countries, by the first quarter of next year.
Farmerline was founded in 2013 by, Alloysius Attah who is also the CEO, and Emmanuel Owusu Addai who is also the Chief Operations Officer(COO). The company has been providing small-scale farmers with knowledge, market connections, high-quality seeds and fertilizer as well as climate predictions.
”We remain committed to standing by farmers and agribusinesses across Africa during this crucial time. With the support of Oikocredit alongside our first-round funders, our distribution, logistics and financing services will continue not only in Ghana but also in Ivory Coast where we’ve recently begun the process of expanding our team.” Atta said.
Farmerline makes use of agro-dealers who act as the link to farmers, ensuring access to high-quality supplies.
The partner retailers use Farmerline’s Mergdata platform to collect data about the farmers they serve and generate the information required to predict the demand for farm supplies and prevent stockouts. Mergdata is a proprietary AI technology platform built by Farmerline to make data collection easier.
“With the support of Oikocredit alongside our first-round funders, our distribution, logistics and financing services will continue not only in Ghana but also in Ivory Coast where we’ve recently begun the process of expanding our team,” Attah added in a statement.
In its planned expansion bid, Farmerline plans to enter into Ivory Coast as it works to deepen its presence in West Africa and reduce the cost of farming.
Mergdata, the AI-powered platform by Farmerline was among Times 100 innovations of 2019. The platform has been leased to more than 60 partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In Ghana, Farmerline engaged with over 77,000 farmers last year, directly selling products to them and buying their crops. The team projects that this number could go up to 140,000.
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