Apollo Agriculture, a Kenyan agri-fintech startup dedicated to helping small-scale farmers across Africa increase their profits and farm more sustainably, has raised $10 million from Swedfund and ImpactConnect to further accelerates its rapid growth, enable increased earnings for farmers, faster adoption of sustainable practices, and increased food security across Africa.
According to Eli Pollak, CEO of Apollo Agriculture, “This collaboration with Swedfund and ImpactConnect is a significant milestone for Apollo Agriculture. The investment positions us to rapidly scale our operations, enabling more farmers to access the essential products and financial services they need to feed their families and communities and adapt to climate change. This funding unlocks the potential to serve 400,000 additional farmers during the loan’s term, accelerating Apollo’s growth. We are grateful for the trust and confidence that both Swedfund and ImpactConnect have placed in our vision, and we look forward to achieving transformative growth together.”
In May last year, the firm signed a $9.5 million 10-year loan from U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (“DFC”) to expand across Africa to deliver on its mission to enhance food security and build climate resilience among small-scale farmers and rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
Earlier on, it had raised $1 million in debt funding from the Agri-Business Capital Fund (ABC Fund) and a further $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 in an equity round 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.
Launched in Kenya in 2017 and Zambia in 2022, Apollo Agriculture has been expanding rapidly, empowering more than 170 thousand farmers to date, nearly half of them female farmers. The platform builds financial and climate resilience as well as improves food security among small-scale farmers and rural communities. With Apollo, farmers are able to get access to financing and all the tools they need to farm profitably, increasing their crop yield by approximately 2.0-2.5x times.
Apollo Agriculture’s machine learning-powered credit models and automated operations technology enable them to scalably serve small-scale farmers to access the high-quality farm products, optimized financing, and digital advice they need to succeed. Apollo’s technology has enabled it to provide essential farm input products and financial services to over 350,000 small-scale farmers across Kenya and Zambia since its launch.
Financing provided by the Swedish development finance institution and ImpactConnect will be utilized to expand Apollo Agriculture’s activities across Kenya, enabling more small-scale farmers to farm more profitably and sustainably and increase their resilience to climate change.