Nigeria’s ThriveAgric raises $56.4 Million Debt Funding to expand to new markets

ThriveAgric has announced it has raised $56.4 Million in debt funding from local commercial banks and institutional investors. Founded in 2017, and operational since 2018, ThriveAgric explains that they empower farmers in Nigeria to sell their products to Fast-moving Consumer Goods companies (FMCG) and food processors. They also leverage their technology to help farmers access finance as well as improve productive and sales to promote food security.

Their technology, an 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.

The debt raise also includes a co-investment grant of $1.75 million from the USAID funded West Africa Trade & investment.

ThriveAgric says the new investment will them grow their 200,000+ farmer base, and expand to new African markets including Kenya, Zambia and Ghana.

This latest funding follows $9m the company raised 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.

What they said:

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. Despite a volatile backdrop over the past few years, brought about by the global pandemic, ThriveAgric witnessed temporary payment disruptions to our retail crowdfunders. However, we were able to overcome those challenges within a year and maintained company profitability. Our solid financial performance underscores investors’ faith in ThriveAgric. 

“It is great to see that the market has overwhelmingly backed our farmers and they are confident in the strategic decisions we have taken. ThriveAgric has increased its footprint to 20 states in Nigeria, and we look forward to a lengthy period of growth as we continue to link African farmers to capital, data driven best practices and access to local and global markets for their commodities.” 

ThriveAgric Co-founder and CTO, Ayo Arikawe, said, “ThriveAgric’s fundraising objectives are geared towards growth through vertical and horizontal integration. One of our goals is to be able to widen access to markets for our smallholder farmers, help to lift them out of poverty, and ultimately promote food security. We do this by enabling them to take their produce to local and international markets. We’re thrilled and excited to receive support from such high calibre investors. Their financial backing is an essential step in fulfilling ThriveAgric’s vision to build an Africa that feeds herself and the world.”