Kenya-based agtech company, iProcure, has raised $10.2 million in its latest financing round.
The company which operates from Kenya and Uganda, said it raised the funds from series of investors, which includes Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) – the firm that led the round. Other investment firms that participated in the fundraise are: Novastar Ventures, Ceniarth, and British International Investment (BII).
The newly raised funds includes a $1.2 million debt financing, bringing the total funds raised by the company within its 8 years of existence to $17 million.
iProcure was founded in 2014 by Nicole Galletta, Stefano Carcoforo, Patrick Wanjohi, and Bernard Maingi. These co-founders also function as the Head of innovation, Chief data and growth officer, Chief technical officer, and Chief commercial officer, respectively.
The company, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya, works to optimize the agriculture input supply chain in its host countries. Through the company’s web and mobile platforms, it helps its users to manage orders based on inventory, point of sale activities, and client profiles. The company uses geo-located purchasing patterns, real-time agent performance and transaction analysis, to predict demand, and business intelligence data.
“We have built out a Pan-African distribution infrastructure, and we are using these funds to scale our operations in our two markets and to enter Tanzania. We’re also going to be allocating some of the resources towards introducing higher quality cheaper products that we are sourcing from international players,” co-founder, Stefano Carcoforo, said.
With the new funding, iProcure would push for cross-border expansion, moving outside of Kenya and Uganda, where it currently operates, to Tanzania.
With the use of its end-to-end Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, iProcure connects 5,000 agro-dealers to different manufacturers, and plans to further increase the number as it brings more retailers and partners from the markets it serve.
“The agro-dealers use our technology to keep track of their sales, process sales, to manage inventory, to place orders, and build CRMs that can help deploy loyalty programs to the farmers. It does everything they need. We provide a completely transparent system from the factory all the way down to the point when the farmer purchases the product,” Carcoforo said.
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Further adding to iProcure’s plans for its future, Niraj Varia, former Novastar partner, who recently resumed work as the CEO of iProcure, said:
“Work capital is an issue facing these retailers, and we’ve demonstrated that if we provide supplies on a BNPL model, retailers buy 30% more. This shows that retailers themselves are cash constrained and can’t buy all the inventory they can sell; meaning that farmers aren’t able to access all the inputs they need. The BNPL service we are introducing will sort this problem,” said Varia.
Varia has spend the last 8 years building his career at VC firm, Novastar, where he built through the ranks to become a partner at the firm. He believes that iProcure is well positioned to assist the 40% Kenyan population employed by agriculture, and further extend it’s service to the 70% rural population that are also involved in agricultural activities.