Ghana: Hivos-Triodos Fund in agtech deal

Hivos-Triodos Fund has provided a $1.5 million facility to Ghana-based agtech company Farmerline. The company supports smallholder farmers and agribusinesses with its digital tools, logistics, field agents, agri inputs, education, and online trading services. The facility will be used to strengthen Farmerline’s position and expand the company’s reach.

Founded in 2013 by CEO Alloysius Attah and COO Emmanuel Addai, Farmerline has quickly grown into a smallholder agtech market leader in its home country Ghana and beyond in Africa. The company helps to transform rural smallholder farmers into successful entrepreneurs by delivering data and services that improve productivity, decisions, practices, crop outputs, income, and livelihoods, leading to food security, employment opportunities and increased income.

The global food crisis and climate change have a devastating impact on many African nations and even more on rural and farming communities. These problems are exacerbated by the lack of access to basic needs like quality inputs, technology, information, training, and access to market to enable the farmers to grow more food in a sustainable manner and earn more income, explains Jerry Kwo, investment manager  at Triodos Investment Management. “Farmerline has developed a functional solution leveraging technology to solve these problems and increase food security. This is a good fit with Hivos-Triodos Fund in terms of positive impact in ecological and societal resilience and in improving the wellbeing of thousands of small holder farmers in West Africa.”

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