Since 2016, Shamba Pride’s digishop merchant network has improved last-mile agricultural input delivery and addressed price exploitation and quality challenges for farmers.
Agtech has 2,700 merchants (agro-dealers) in 24 Kenyan counties, or little over half the nation. It plans to expand to more retailers and agricultural regions in the next year and then explore neighboring markets like Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, which face similar farm input supply chain issues like sourcing, unpredictable prices, quality issues, and stockouts.
A $3.7 million debt-equity pre-series will fund its Kenyan development and franchise expansion. The EU farm finance project, EDFI AgriFI, and Seedstars Africa Ventures funded the firm. After SAV and Gray Matters Capital secured $1.1 million in 2021, the current round comprises $1.7 million in equity.
Shamba Pride digitizes agro-dealers for company administration and inventory ordering, ensuring millions of rural small-scale farmers have access to fertilizers and seeds.
In rural areas, agro-dealers govern how farmers get inputs, services, and training. We empower these agro-dealers by offering them the proper tools and technology for business visibility, professional and commercial growth, and farmer assistance, Shamba Pride founder and CEO Samuel Munguti told TechCruch.
Through its USSD platform, Agtech offers farmers market links, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) finance services, and training.
It focuses on small-scale farmers in Kenya’s agriculture industry, which accounts for 33% of the country’s GDP, 40% of its workforce, and 70% of rural workers. It accounts for 65% of export revenues, making it an important economic sector and inventors’ focus.
The success of Shamba Pride is due to advances that make farming easier. Maxime Bouan, a general partner at SAV, which received $30 million and $10.5 million from EIB and AFDB last week, said the company is proud to support a scalable model that boosts farmer and agrovet (agro-dealer) revenues and female entrepreneurship.
SAV, a sector-agnostic fund, likes firms that improve education, healthcare, utilities, commodities, services, and efficiency.
Shamba Pride uses “climate-smart” agriculture products from the French company Elephant Verve to enhance resilience for small-holder farmers.
