ThriveAgric gets $56.4m funding ThriveAgric is a Nigerian technology-driven agriculture company that has raised $56.4 Million in debt financing from local banks and institutional investors. The USAid-funded West Africa Trade and Investment also contributed $1.75million to the raise.

The company’s more than 200 000 farmers will benefit from the investment and it will also be able expand into new African markets like Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. ThriveAgric was founded in 2017 and has been fully operational since 2018. empowers farmers in NigeriaIt allows them to sell their products directly to food processors and FMCGs. The technology — Agricultural Operating System (AOS) — works entirely offline, dispatches USSD to farmers and powers Android apps used by field agents to help digitally collate creditworthy farmers and gather relevant farm data.

Boosting smallholder farmers

This funding follows a $9 million raised by the company in 2020. Over the past 12 months, ThriveAgric’s revenues have increased five-fold, with a year-on-year increase of 277% in farmer numbers. The strong margin performance was boosted by farmers using the company’s AOS proprietary product. The company supports Africa’s agriculture sector by assisting smallholder farmers in producing high-quality grains. Harvests, including maize, rice and soybeans, are stored in many of the company’s over 450 warehouses in Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina states in Nigeria, before being commoditized and offered to local and global trade markets at a premium price. Commenting on the impact the funds will have, chief executive officer Uka Eje said: “The new investment takes us one step closer to fulfilling our mission of building the largest network of profitable African farmers using technology, to ensure food security. We look ahead with renewed confidence knowing that our smallholder farmers will benefit financially even more from this new investment.”