Apollo Agriculture plans to double the number of farmers it serves by the end of the century and introduce other products that deliver more value per acre of land. The equity round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 raised $40 million in Series B funding.
Apollo uses satellite imagery to rate the credit-worthiness of farmers. The funding will be used to refine its technology and deliver more products and services to farmers. The startup works with a network of agents who recruit farmers and retailers to its platform.
Eli Pollak, co-founder and CEO of Apollo Agriculture, told TechCrunch that they are continuing to invest in growing fast, serving more farmers, helping them grow their acres, and hitting the acceleration on the business. Expansion into new markets will be both continued and also new.
Growth opportunities in East and West Africa are being eyed by the agritech.
Products that deliver more value per acre are being developed. Pollak, who co-founded Apollo with Benjamin Njenga and Earl St Sauver, said that new crops could allow customers to earn more money.
Apollo started by working with maize farmers, but has since focused on helping them grow other high-yielding crops.
We started with maize. Nearly every farmer in East Africa plants maize, which has a profound advantage. He said that this gives them a place where they can earn farmer's trust and deliver value immediately.
Partnering with a farmer and using machine learning models to identify the farmers with the best prospects of graduating to higher-profitability crops is the pathway from subsistence farming to farming as a business.
By the end of last year, Apollo had worked with 100,000 farmers, with plans to double that by the end of this year. Over a thousand retailers and 5,000 agents are spread across the country.
Retailers use the startup's checkout app to handle point of sale, inventory, source wholesale orders and as access to trade credit, while the agents onboard farmers use the Apollo.
Pollak said Apollo has grown 10 times since the close of a $6 million series A in 2020. Over the years, the agritech has received over $16 million in debt funding.
Apollo started by working with maize farmers, but is now helping them grow other high-yielding crops. The image is from Zafaran Photography.
Apollo's products include insurance, which is offered by its partners including Pula.
Pollak said that they bundle insurance with every credit they sell to protect the borrowers.
The latest funding round included participation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Venture, Endeavor Catalyst, CDC, and existing investors.
Feeding the world is one of the most important challenges facing society, according to the SoftBank Investment investment director. Apollo's platform offers a one stop shop solution to help small-scale farmers in emerging regions improve crop and livestock outputs. Financial services like credit, insurance and advice can be included in the supply chain to support a more efficient and sustainable global food chain.
Pollak and Earl used to work at The Climate Corporation in the US, where they helped farmers use data to make production decisions. Apollo was launched to help farmers outside the US double their output and shift to commercial farming.
The agriculture sector contributes 26% of the country's GDP, employs 40% of the country's population, and accounts for 65% of its export earnings. The sector is a key area of focus for innovative people because of its importance to the country's economic livelihood. iProcure, a farm input procurement and last-mile distribution service platform is one of the agritechs that is creating ripples in the market.
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