Kenyan agri-tech startup Shamba Pride has raised a US$1.1 million funding round to support its expansion across the country and roll out its solution to over 1,000 shops.
Shamba Pride is a one-stop online-to-offline platform that connects smallholder farmers to quality inputs, services, and information through technology-powered “DigiShops”.
The startup has just raised a US$1.1 million funding round from Seedstars Africa Ventures and Gray Matters Capital, aimed at supporting its national expansion and rollout of its digital solution to over 1,000 digitalised shops.
This will allow the company to empower hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers to boost their income and productivity through increased access to better quality inputs, education, financial services and market linkages.
“Shamba Pride is revolutionising rural distribution systems for African farmers by transforming from traditional and informal systems to modern trade. Through Shamba Pride, existing last-mile agro dealer entrepreneurs are able to digitalise their operations and provide smallholder farmers with right and affordable technology, quality products and services. The model establishes a network of smart micro-entrepreneurs serving the smallholder farmer community, allowing farmers to increase their farm productivity, sustain their employment and their household income,” said chief executive officer (CEO) and founder Samuel Munguti.
“We are excited to have Seedstars Africa Ventures and Gray Matters Capital join the Shamba Pride family. Our momentum to revolutionise last mile distribution systems for African farmers has gained new momentum. The investment will propel our national growth to service hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers while creating a reliable community of smart micro-entreprenuers offering improved services to farmers.”
Maxime Bouan, partner at Seedstars Africa Ventures, said talented African early-stage entrepreneurs continue to lack funding despite providing tangible adapted solutions.
“We are convinced Shamba Pride’s online-to-offline model is perfectly suited to tap into a huge market opportunity by upskilling existing value chains and finally offering farmers the quality counterparts they deserve. Beyond capital, we will continue to actively support the company through additional market linkages and corporate partnerships within Africa and beyond to guarantee farmers obtain the best value,” he said.
