Industry News

03/11/25

Farm to Feed raises $1.5M seed funding to scale imperfect food platform in Africa

Kenyan agritech Farm to Feed, a B2B platform connecting farmers with buyers for imperfect or “rescue-grade” produce, has raised USD 1.5 million in seed funding to expand across Kenya and into other African markets. The round includes USD 1.27 million in equity and USD 230,000 in non-dilutive capital from the DeveloPPP ventures program, an initiative of DEG (German Investment Corporation), supporting innovative enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Founded in 2021, Farm to Feed began as a pandemic-era relief effort helping farmers who were cut off from markets by buying their surplus crops and redistributing them to vulnerable families. It has since evolved into a digital marketplace linking smallholder farmers to buyers seeking affordable, traceable produce, boosting both sustainability and farmer livelihoods. The platform now serves over 6,500 farmers via mobile app and USSD.

In April 2024, Farm to Feed secured investment from Renew Capital to enhance its food-loss tracking and carbon credit systems. The startup is also a former GSMA Innovation Fund grantee and received early backing from the Catalyst Fund.

31/10/25

Synnefa receives $300K to deploy solar dryers in Kenya

Kenyan agri-tech startup Synnefa has secured USD 300,000 in grant funding from the Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) initiative to scale its IoT-enabled solar dryers across Kenya.

The project, implemented in partnership with nonprofit Solidaridad, will benefit about 800 smallholder farmers in Makueni County, aiming to cut post-harvest losses by 45% and reduce drying times from weeks to just two or three days for crops such as coffee, grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Founded in 2019, Synnefa develops smart farming tools, including greenhouses, IoT systems, and solar dryers, to improve productivity and resource efficiency. The company has reached over 7,000 farmers and plans to scale to 150,000 across East Africa by 2026, potentially preventing 50,000 metric tons of food waste and reducing CO₂ emissions from lost harvests.

05/11/25

NITI Aayog launches frontier tech roadmap for India’s Digital Agriculture Mission 2.0

NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s public policy think tank, has launched Reimagining Agriculture: A Roadmap for Frontier Technology-Led Transformation, developed with support from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and in collaboration with Google and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The roadmap sets out a national strategy to harness frontier technologies to enhance agricultural productivity, sustainability, and farmer incomes.

At its core is the proposed Digital Agriculture Mission 2.0, built around three pillars (Enhance, Reimagine, and Converge) to integrate advanced technologies such as climate-resilient seeds, precision agriculture, digital twins, agentic AI, robotics, and satellite-enabled sensing. Originally launched in 2021, the Digital Agriculture Mission aims to accelerate adoption of emerging technologies including AI, blockchain, drones, and remote sensing. Foundational initiatives such as AgriStack, which creates digital IDs for farmers, and the Krishi Decision Support System (DSS) remain central to building a unified, data-driven agricultural ecosystem.

The roadmap identifies six barriers limiting scale-up: fragmented data systems, trust deficits, a persistent “phygital divide,” weak coordination, skills shortages, and limited capital for early-stage agritech enterprises. It calls for stronger last-mile digital access, modernised research and skills systems, and closer alignment of policy, market, and innovation through centres of excellence and regulatory sandboxes.

By embedding technology within inclusive, locally adapted frameworks, the roadmap envisions Indian agriculture shifting from input-intensive practices to an innovation-driven, resilient, and sustainable sector aligned with the Viksit Bharat @ 2047 vision, India’s goal of becoming a developed, inclusive, and sustainable economy by 2047.

Good reads

06/11/25

WEF highlights the crucial role of deep-tech for agricultural transformation

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published a groundbreaking report titled Shaping the Deep-Tech Revolution in Agriculture, assessing the role and opportunity to leverage frontier technologies from generative AI, computer vision and remote sensing, to robotics and biotechnology in accelerating agricultural transformation.

The study was released by the WEF’s Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture Initiative (AI4AI). It examines the role of frontier tech or “deep-tech”, defined as science-based innovation that tackles complex challenges, in building more productive, sustainable, and climate-resilient food systems.

According to WEF, digital agriculture innovation is advancing rapidly, with patent filings in agritech growing by over 9% annually, nearly three times the global average for all technologies. Yet, tech adoption in the sector remains uneven due to fragmented data ecosystems, limited interoperability, and constrained access to capital and digital infrastructure.

The report calls for integrated data systems, greater public-private collaboration, and investment in scalable innovation to ensure deep-tech benefits reach smallholders, including in the Global South, as well as large producers. It identifies specific use cases such as digital twins, agentic AI, precision agronomy, and satellite-enabled sensing as key enablers for a more resilient and innovation-driven agricultural sector.

By framing agriculture as a frontier for deep-tech development, WEF underscores the opportunity to shift from input-intensive models toward data-driven systems that enhance productivity while reducing environmental impact.

09/10/25

Caribou examines the rise of social agriculture in West Africa

Research and advisory firm Caribou has published a blog highlighting key findings from the recent study Social Agriculture in the West African Economic and Monetary Union. The study builds on earlier research in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal, extending the analysis to Côte d’Ivoire and Benin. Social agriculture is defined as the use of social media, primarily WhatsApp, Facebook, and TikTok, to exchange information, access markets, and build communities.

The report highlights persistent barriers to digital inclusion. Data costs remain high, with 1 GB of mobile data representing 5.7% of monthly GNI per capita in Benin and 1.5% in Côte d’Ivoire, while devices can cost up to 95% of monthly income for the poorest users. Despite these challenges, rural agripreneurs primarily use WhatsApp for local market engagement, whereas urban agripreneurs leverage multiple platforms such as Facebook and TikTok to reach broader markets.

The report finds that digital visibility is opening new opportunities for agripreneurs to access institutional support and funding, as those with an online presence are increasingly recognised by NGOs and government programmes. Agripreneurs are also beginning to use AI tools like Canva AI and ChatGPT for marketing and business planning tasks. ​

Caribou’s analysis underscores the need to integrate social agriculture into national digital and agricultural strategies, positioning it as a driver of youth engagement, innovation, and economic inclusion across West Africa.