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Small Steps Taken Towards Greater Gender Diversity in African Startup Ecosystem in Last 2 Years, Says New Report
The report was released in partnership with industry stakeholders, led by Madica, an Africa-focused pre-seed investment programme dedicated to empowering underrepresented and underfunded mission-driven founders.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Rize Secures $31 Million Series B to Expand Low-Emission Rice Network in Vietnam and Indonesia
Rize works with farmers to adopt Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), an irrigation technique endorsed by the International Rice Research Institute and CGIAR that periodically drains paddies rather than keeping them permanently flooded.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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The Flawed Assumptions Behind AI for Agriculture: What Artificial Intelligence Can — And Can’t — Do for African Farmers
There is a dominant mental model of AI for agriculture. According to Sheena Raikundalia at Kuza, the pitch goes something like this: “What if every farmer had a personal AI advisor telling them what to grow, when to plant and how much fertilizer or other inputs to apply?” That model is sleek, frictionless, and built on the assumption that farmers are operating alone with the algorithm, receiving personalized recommendations and optimizing their decisions accordingly. But as she argues, optimizing agriculture in Africa is not primarily an information problem: It is a trust problem, a market access problem, a collective action problem and a financing problem — and addressing those challenges requires a human connection. She explores Kuza's experiences offering an AI chatbot to Kenyan farmers, and shares lessons on how best to leverage both human and digital resources to support smallholders in Africa.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Kenya’s Terrafy Launched to Build Parcel-Level Land Intelligence for Africa’s Rural Finance Markets
The platform combines field data, geospatial intelligence, verification workflows, and monitoring systems to create institution-ready land records, turning informal land into bankable, monitorable, monetisable assets.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Proparco Backs Early-Stage Tech Fund in Africa
The investment aims to strengthen early-stage technology financing in Francophone Africa and support startups operating in high-growth digital sectors.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Kaleidofin, Apollo Agriculture and IDH Farmfit Fund Close Kenya’s First Private-Sector Agriculture Securitization Deal
Kenya has recorded a major milestone in agricultural finance after fintech company Kaleidofin completed the country’s first private-sector local currency securitization focused on smallholder farmers, unlocking fresh capital for rural lending.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Namibia-Based Firm to Back Early-Stage Southern African Startups With $10 Million Fund
The fund will focus on sectors including fintech, agritech, healthtech, education, clean energy, e-commerce, and enterprise software.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Women Farmers Remain the Missing Link in India’s Digital Agriculture Push
Indian agriculture is intricately connected with gender, caste, patriarchy and entrenched power relations; without accounting for these, digital agriculture will be insufficient to transform rural livelihoods in real terms.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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