NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

ThriveAgric, a fast-growing technology-driven agricultural company, has raised $56.4M in debt funding from local commercial banks and institutional investors. The raise also included a co-investment grant of $1.75M from the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment. The new investment will enable the company to grow its 200,000+ farmer base, and expand into new African markets, including Ghana, Zambia and Kenya.

Founded in 2017 (and fully operational since 2018), ThriveAgric empowers farmers in Nigeria to sell their products to FMCGs and food processors, leveraging its proprietary technology to access finance as well as improve productivity and sales to promote food security, The technology, an Agricultural Operating System (AOS), works entirely offline, dispatches USSD to farmers, and powers Android apps used by field agents to help digitally collate creditworthy farmers and gather relevant farm data.

This latest funding follows the $9m the company raised in 2020. Over the past 12 months, ThriveAgric’s revenues have increased five-fold, with a year-on-year increase of 277% in farmer numbers. The strong margin performance was boosted by farmers using the company’s AOS proprietary product.

Photo courtesy of Mozambique – Massaca Reservoir Water Collection Agric – John Hogg.