A Kenyan agritech startup, iProcure, has closed a $10.2 million Series B funding round. The lead investor in this round wasiprocure-receives-10-2-million-in-series-b-fun Investisseurs & Partenaires.
The capital, a mix of debt and equity, will help iProcure expand into Uganda and Tanzania and create a credit offering that lets agro-retailers buy supplies on credit. Other investors in this funding round were Novastar Ventures, British International Investment (BII), and Ceniarth.
What will the funds be used for?
iProcure gets rid of the many middlemen in the traditional agricultural supply chain and shows how changes in technology affect prices and levels of supply. This makes sure that fertilizers and seeds, which are important for farming, will be available, of good quality, and delivered at prices lower than those on the market.
The new CEO of iProcure used to be a partner at Novastar Ventures, which is the main investor in the company. He said of the funding round: “This funding will expand iProcure’s product offering to include credit services and a new POS system for agro-dealers to predict their inventory needs better and reduce shoplifting.” This will help our more than 5,000 partner merchants make more money and better serve the tens of thousands of farmers who depend on each shop.
How will iProcure change agriculture’s effects on the environment?
Byland, iProcure is helping to reduce agriculture’s overall effect on the environment and food costs by ensuring that smallholder farmers can plant their crops on time and get higher crop yields while using fewer land supplies. Over a million African farmers are helped by iProcure’s efforts to make it easier to get essential agricultural supplies. This is because the company has grown 23 times in the last five years.
“iProcure has grown 23X in the five years since Novastar invested,” Abel Boreto said, Associate Investment Director at Novastar Ventures, a global venture capital firm working from the entrepreneurial centers of Lagos, London, and Nairobi. This demonstrates the demand for its services, which are presently used by over one million farmers located in Kenya.
According to Asif Noorani, the Senior Investment Manager of Impact Investing at I&P, “iProcure is playing a pivotal role in transforming the agricultural sector in Africa by digitising the agro-retailer networks and making last-mile agricultural input distribution more efficient.” The region’s fragmented agricultural inputs market is being brought together as part of iProcure’s main goal to give farmers better access to authentic and affordable agricultural supplies. In The long-term goal is that these methods will bring down the cost of food production and increase food security.
East Africa’s traditional agricultural supply chains are being changed by iProcure’s new distribution network, which is disrupting the way things have always been done. Use that infrastructure to link important agricultural input suppliers with adjacent agro-dealers directly.
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Novastar will continue to provide support to iProcure
Novastar is still a big fan of iProcure’s plans to grow and enter the markets in Tanzania and Uganda, where they will definitely help the agriculture industry in a big way.
According to Sara Taylor, who is in charge of Small and Medium Enterprise Funds at British International Investment, “iProcure solves the problem of connecting smallholder farmers with the appropriate inputs at the appropriate time.” BII is excited to work with iProcure to help build a more inclusive, strong, and efficient supply chain for agricultural inputs in Africa.
“In the five years since Novastar invested in iProcure, the company has grown by 23 times,” said Abel Borrero, Associate Investment Director at Novastar Ventures. This shows how much people want its services, which are currently used by more than a million farmers in Kenya. Novastar is still a big fan of iProcure’s plans to grow and enter the markets in Tanzania and Uganda, where they will help the agriculture industry significantly.
About iProcure
iProcure is one of the most popular and best ways for small-scale farmers in rural Africa to get high-quality agricultural inputs. They make use of a proprietary platform, mobile technology, and depots; iProcure has linked input manufacturers and smallholder farmers based on data and demand.
The platform offered by the company assists businesses with inventory, point of sale activities, and client profiles, in addition to geo-located purchasing patterns, real-time agent performance, and transaction analysis. These features make it possible for regional and international business buyers to buy goods or services from regional and local vendors. They also make it possible for service providers in key industries to improve their agriculture input supply chain.
In all supply chains, they provide corporate information, data-driven stock management, procurement, and last-mile delivery services. They also benefit producers and consumers because they provide a lot of value.