Apollo Agriculture, a Kenyan agritech startup, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 in an equity round.
Its latest funding round included participation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, CDC, and existing investors including Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, SBI, Breyer Capital, and TO Ventures Food.
With the investment, Apollo plans to double the number of farmers it is serving by the end 2022 and to introduce other products that deliver more value per acre of land.
Apollo, founded in 2016 by Eli Polla, Benjamin Njenga, and Earl St Sauver, uses agronomic machine learning, remote sensing, and mobile phones to give a customized bundle of loans, high-quality farm inputs, and guidance to farmers in emerging markets, starting in Kenya.
Apollo uses satellite data, soil data, farmer behavior data, and crop yield models to assess farmer credit risk and adapt each package to a farmer’s individual location. Insurance is one of its offerings, which is provided through its partners, including Pula, a Kenyan insurtech.
Apollo Agriculture’s CEO Eli Pollak, who co-founded the company with Benjamin Njenga and Earl St Sauver, claimed that they are continuing to invest in fast growth, supporting additional farmers, assisting them in expanding their acreage, and really pushing the business forward.