Farmerline, a Ghanaian startup that bills itself as “Amazon for African farmers,” has raised US$6.4 million in pre-Series A funding as well as another US$6.5 million in loans to help it grow.
Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, led the fundraising round, which also included Greater Impact Foundation.
Farmerline, founded in 2013 by Alloysius Attah and Emmanuel Owusu Addai, works with agribusinesses and farm associations to provide high-quality fertilizer and seeds, as well as free instruction on climate-smart agricultural methods and access to worldwide markets, to African farmers.
Farmerline has digitized over one million farmers through partnerships in 26 countries to date, and with the new money, it plans to expand its reach.
“At the height of the epidemic, local agricultural SMEs were critical to guaranteeing food security by helping farmers, supplying agricultural inputs, and distributing to final consumers,” Attah stated. “With this additional investment, we will scale the AI capabilities within Farmerline’s Mergdata platform to help farmers and agribusinesses enhance their revenue by assisting them in obtaining farm inputs, providing assets like as tricycles, tractors, and threshers, and linking them to global markets.”
Farmerline will also invest in local infrastructure and logistics to assist distribution, as well as expand the industry’s current marketplace in Ghana, with aspirations to build partnerships with partners in the Ivory Coast.
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