Kenyan based Agri SME, Shamba Pride, has announced an investment of $3.7 million from EDFI AgriFI (the EU Agriculture Financing Initiative) and Seedstars Africa Ventures. The investment is broken down to a $2 million long term loan from EDFI Agrifi and $1.7 million in equity from Seedstars Africa Ventures.
Seedstars Africa Ventures has been an investor since 2021. Shamba pride is one of its key investments in Kenya, the other company on its investment list is Poa Internet. The investment by Seedstars comes almost 2 weeks after the venture announced it has secured a $30 million equity investment from the European investment Bank.
Shamba Pride is a unique startup that seeks to address the challenges of providing quality and affordable agricultural inputs, services, and information to smallholders in rural areas. The company has provided a platform that allows last-mile agro-dealer shops or agrovets to easily order and purchase their supplies. With weekly doorstep deliveries, it ensures these dealers do not run out of stock and do not leave their business premises just to restock.
Shamba Pride says its business model not only provides access to agricultural inputs for smallholder farmers in remote areas but also creates jobs. The company started operations in 2016. The latest investment round raises Shamba Pride’s total funding to $4.9 million.
Shamba Pride will use the latest investment to expand its current activities in Kenya and develop additional services. Part of the financing will be used to develop a franchise network to increase impact in rural areas.
The agriculture sector in Kenya plays an important role in the country’s economy. Even though no verifiable data is available, smallholder farmers make up a big percentage of all farmers. Ensuring these farmers have access to agricultural inputs is critical.
What They Said:
Commenting on this investment, Shamba Pride CEO Samuel Munguti said, “EDFI AgriFI joined this growth journey through an investment that propels Shamba Pride towards its vision of positively impacting the lives of some 200,000 farmers by the end of 2025. The company has already grown its outreach by 10x since 2021 to reach over 220 shops, and the additional equity investment from Seedstars Africa Ventures alongside a trusted institutional financial institution is a significant milestone for the company to become a regional champion and a trusted brand for the industry.”
Rodrigo Madrazo, Chief Executive Officer of EDFI Management Company, said, “Support for Shamba Pride reflects our commitment to empowering entrepreneurship in frontier markets, with a high impact felt in rural areas. By providing appropriate long-term debt alongside additional equity investment, EDFI AgriFI is poised to play a pivotal role to help scale up Shamba Pride operations.”
“Shamba Pride’s success is based on innovations which facilitate the day-to-day farming activities. We’ve been proud to support a scalable model which creates additional revenues for farmers and agrovets and strongly contributes to successful women entrepreneurship”, noted Maxime Bouan General Partner at Seedstars Africa Ventures.
Robin Boereboom, AgriFI Senior Investment Officer, EDFI Management Company, added: “Samuel Munguti, a Kenyan entrepreneur, applied his experience in supply chain and marketing within fast-moving consumer goods companies to disrupt the local agri inputs’ sector. We’re excited to support a locally grown and innovative digital initiative that is revolutionizing the agri input ecosystem in rural areas, with significant benefits for both agrovets and farmers.”
