Nigerian agri-tech startup Farmcrowdy has bundled its sister companies Farmgate Africa and Agricsquare into one company, birthing a bigger Farmcrowdy that can open more farm projects to its sponsors.
Formed in 2016, the Farmcrowdy platform connects small scale farmers across Nigeria with access to finance sourced from individuals and corporates via its online platform, and has so far empowered over 25,000 farmers across 14 states.
Disrupt Africa reported in March the startup had raised additional seed funding of US$1 million as it prepares to broaden its offering, and in April it launched Farmgate Africa, which gives major processors and international buyers the opportunity to purchase commodities directly from local farming clusters.
Farmgate, as well as Agricsquare, a community of agriculture enthusiasts that has over 20,000 people engaging daily, have now been subsumed into Farmcrowdy, which the company said was a significant step as it would allow the combined entity to have a stronger foothold in the agricultural value chain, by dealing with core crop farming processes, production and trading side of commodities as well as marketing media for agriculture.
The combined companies, referred to as Farmcrowdy, will feature all sponsorship options available from both Farmcrowdy and Farmgate Africa. The managing director of Farmgate Africa, Kenneth Obiajulu, will oversee the trading aspect of the new entity while Temitope Omotolani, chief operations officer of Farmcrowdy, will continue to oversee the production side.
Farmcrowdy’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Onyeka Akumah said this process had always been the plan as the company sought to attract more talent, expand its reach and provide more options for sponsors on its platform.
