Apollo Agriculture raises $40m, led by Softbank Vision Fund 2
Apollo Agriculture, the commercial farming platform that helps small-scale farmers maximise their profits, has raised a $40 million series B funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2. The round also includes participation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, CDC, and existing investors including Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, SBI, Breyer Capital, and TO Ventures Food.
African farmers have long struggled to access credit and high-quality farming tools, leaving average farm yields per acre at only 10-20% of those in North America. Apollo Agriculture directly addresses these challenges and empowers farmers to increase their profitability 2-3x with access to financing, high-quality farm inputs, insurance and optimised advice. Apollo Agriculture leverages machine learning, remote sensing, and mobile payments to accurately underwrite farm credit risk and has built an automatically managed network of more than 5,000 agents and nearly 1,000 retailers that enables last-mile delivery of farm inputs and services to small-scale farmers.
“Our mission at Apollo is to ensure that every farmer, everywhere, has the tools they need to farm profitably. Rural communities are the backbone of society, yet have been largely ignored by most technology investors, particularly in emerging markets,” said Eli Pollak, CEO, and co-founder of Apollo Agriculture. “We are incredibly proud to focus relentlessly on farmers and build products with the potential to improve the lives of millions of people around the world. Softbank Vision Fund 2’s investment is a powerful validation of Apollo’s business model and accelerates the rapid growth of our business and team.”
Alexia Yannopoulos, investment director at SoftBank Investment Advisers said, “In the face of sustained macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, feeding the world is one of the most important challenges facing society. Apollo’s platform offers a one stop shop solution to help small-scale farmers in emerging regions to improve crop and livestock outputs. Embedding valuable financial services like credit, insurance and advice into the supply chain is critical in supporting a more efficient and sustainable global food chain.”
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