Kenyan agritech startup, FarmWorks, has disclosed its $4.1 million pre-Series A round to bolster its data analytics capabilities and use AI to improve production and impact planting and lending decisions.
Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund led the round with participation from Livelihood Impact Fund, Vested World, several family offices, and angel investors.
Launched in 2020 by Yi Li (CEO) and Peter Muthee, FarmWorks provides farmers with access to farm inputs and markets for their produce.
The startup offers farmers pest control services and farm inputs. It also purchases the farmers’ produce for local or international sales. Additionally, it lends them farming tools.
Over 2,000 smallholder farmers participate in FarmWorks’ out-grower programme, which has enabled it to establish a supply chain network that guarantees the prompt delivery of high-quality produce. It says it sells 400 tonnes of produce monthly.
It plans to grow its network of contract farmers in other regions within Kenya, in addition to the two counties in the country’s central region, where it is currently operational and has 16 collection centres.
FarmWorks previously engaged in crop production on its farms, which have now become training centres.
What’s more, the startup teaches farmers about good agricultural practices, which it models on trial farms.
