iProcure, a Kenyan agritech startup, has recently secured a $10.2 million Series B financing led by Investisseurs & Partenaires. The funding, structured as debt and equity, will support iProcure’s expansion into Uganda and Tanzania as well as their launch of a credit offering for agro-retailers to purchase supplies on credit. Other participants in the funding round were Novastar Ventures, British International Investment (BII), and Ceniarth.
IProcure cuts out the multiple levels of middlemen in the traditional agricultural supply chain and provides technology-driven insights on supply levels and prices. This ensures the availability, quality, and delivery of critical agricultural inputs like fertilisers and seeds at a discounted price from prevailing market prices.
Speaking on the raise, Niraj Varia, iProcure’s new CEO and former partner at iProcure’s key investor, Novastar Ventures, said, “In addition to bolstering our existing operations with more warehouses and delivery vehicles, this funding will expand iProcure’s product offering to include credit services and a new POS system for agro-dealers to better forecast their inventory needs and reduce pilferage within their shops. This will help our 5,000+ partner retailers increase their earnings and better serve the hundreds of thousands of farmers that depend on each shop.”
By ensuring smallholder farmers can plant their crops on time and achieve higher crop yields with less land, iProcure is helping to lower food costs and lessen the climate impact of agriculture. Having grown 23 times over the last 5 years, iProcure is streamlining the delivery of crucial agricultural inputs to over 1 million farmers in Africa.
Sara Taylor, Head of SME Funds at British International Investment, said “iProcure solves the problem of connecting smallholder farmers with the right inputs at the right time. BII is excited to partner with iProcure to help build a more inclusive, resilient, and efficient supply chain for agricultural inputs in Africa.”
Abel Boreto, Associate Investment Director at Novastar Ventures, added, “iProcure has grown 23 times in the five years since Novastar invested. This speaks to the demand for its services, which now reach over 1,000,000 Kenyan farmers. Novastar remains a stalwart supporter of iProcure’s growth and market entry into Tanzania and Uganda where they will no doubt bring immense value to the agricultural sector there.”
Asif Noorani, Senior Investment Manager of Impact Investing at I&P, said, “iProcure is playing a pivotal role in transforming the agricultural sector in Africa by digitising the agro-retailer networks and making last-mile agricultural inputs distribution more efficient. At its core, iProcure is improving farmers’ access to genuine and affordable agricultural inputs by consolidating the region’s fragmented agricultural inputs sector. These processes ultimately lower the cost of food production and improve food security.”
By creating its own distribution infrastructure and using it to link significant agricultural input suppliers with nearby agro-dealers directly, iProcure is changing conventional agricultural supply chains in East Africa.
