Ghana’s Agri-Tech Leader Farmerline Secures $1.5 Million Funding from Hivos-Triodos Fonds
Hivos-Triodos Fonds has provided a $1.5 million facility to Ghana-based agri-tech company Farmerline. Farmerline is a market leader in agri-tech in Ghana, providing digital tools, logistics, field agents, agri inputs, education, and online trading services to support smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. This funding will be used to strengthen Farmerline’s position in the market and expand its reach.
Founded in 2013, Farmerline has grown rapidly under the leadership of CEO Alloysius Attah and COO Emmanuel Addai. The company’s mission is to transform rural smallholder farmers into successful entrepreneurs by delivering data and services that improve productivity, decision-making, practices, crop outputs, income, and livelihoods. This approach contributes to food security, employment opportunities, and increased income for farmers.
Farmerline offers an award-winning farm management system called Mergdata, which provides training to smallholder farmers in good agricultural practices, agronomic advice, and bulk messages on weather and crop insurance. The company also connects farmers to buyers nationally and internationally through its trading platform. Farmerline has expanded its commodities trading to include soybeans, rice, corn, cashew, and sheanuts, with plans to explore other value chains like cassava and vegetables.
The company’s impact extends to over 300,000 smallholder farmers through its farmer services platform and over 1.7 million farmers via third-party licensing of its Mergdata software to over 3,000 companies in 48 countries across Africa, Europe, and the US.
Hivos-Triodos Fonds has provided this $1.5 million facility to help Farmerline meet its working capital needs and expand its services to more smallholder farmers. The funding is seen as an opportunity to address the global food crisis and climate change by providing access to quality inputs, technology, information, training, and market access to rural farming communities.
Jerry Kwo, Investment Manager at Hivos-Triodos Fonds, highlights Farmerline’s technology-driven solution as a way to increase food security, ecological and societal resilience, and the well-being of smallholder farmers in West Africa.