Farmerline Group is often regarded as the continent’s Amazon for African farmers. It was founded by Emmanuel Owusu Addai and Alloysius Attah in 2013.
A major study that was carried out by A McKinsey and Co showed that even though sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to increase its agricultural input and overall contribution to the economy, the sector is untapped as a result of a lack of access to quality farm inputs, market and infrastructure (warehouses).
This is where Farmline comes in. The agtech company has stepped in by delivering and combining digital tools, field agents, logistics, various agribusinesses and farm resources to support farmers. This gives farmers access to high-quality fertilizer and seeds, alongside connections to international markets and free education on climate-smart farming practices.
Farmerline has raised $6.4 million in a Pre-Series A round that was led by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and FMO, a Dutch entrepreneurial development bank with participation from Greater Impact Foundation.
The round also saw debt lenders including Mulago Foundation, Netri Foundation, Rippleworks, Kiva, Ceniarth, Rabobank and DEG; their participation resulted in the sum of $6.5 million.
Since Farmerline has begun, they have plans to reach 300,000 farmers in 2022, a 400% growth increase and they intend to have more reach in Ghana before expanding to Ivory Coast. In an interview with TechCrunch, Attah revealed that the company will use the funds to develop physical structures (warehouses and distribution networks).
They partner with agribusinesses to ensure that farmers get access to high-quality supplies. With the use of Mergdata, the start-up’s AI technology platform, they have an idea of how to digitize the farmers they serve and generate data the agritech needs to be able to meet up with the demand for farm supplies.
Farmerline has doubled its direct reach last year from 8000 farmers in 2019, 36,000 in 2020 to 79,000. With the use of Mergdata, it is now used by 180 clients (government, non-governmental organizations and agri-companies inclusive), farmerline has been able to digitize over 1 million farmers in 26 countries across.
