iProcure, a leading data-driven African agricultural input supply company based in Kenya, has announced its expansion into Tanzania. This…
iProcure, a leading data-driven African agricultural input supply company based in Kenya, has announced its expansion into Tanzania. This was achieved through its partnership with the Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA), which is expected to improve access to supplies and services to over 125,000 farmers in Tanzania.
FtMA is a consortium of public and private institutions that aims to increase income and strengthen the resilience of smallholders while simultaneously increasing commercial viability for all agricultural value chain stakeholders.
This is done through FtMA’s support to a network of last-mile service providers called Farmer Service Centres (FSCs). These centres act as key service hubs that provide access to demand-driven services such as quality inputs, weather and planting advisory information, affordable financing, handling and storage solutions, as well as timely market connections, thereby guiding producers’ transition from having a surplus or surplus potential to commercial farming.
FtMA offers a platform to provide last-mile service delivery and structured market access to 125,000 farmers in rural Tanzania through its network of 295 Farmer Service Centers spread across six regions.
The services offered include market access, farm inputs, financing, mechanization, advisory services, and insurance. Through this collaboration, iProcure will deploy its supply-chain tracking technology and business management software solutions to 100 Tanzanian agro-dealers to enhance their operational efficiency and supply traceability. The partnership aims to deploy iProcure’s solutions to 100 FtMA Farmer Service Centers by November 2023.
Revolutionalising agricultural supply chain
iProcure has revolutionized traditional agricultural supply chains in East Africa by developing its own distribution infrastructure connecting major agricultural input suppliers directly to local agro-dealers via its proprietary distribution technology system.
By cutting out the multiple levels of middlemen in the traditional agricultural supply chains and providing technology-driven insights on supply levels and price, iProcure ensures the availability, quality, and delivery of critical agricultural inputs like fertilizers and seeds. Agrodealers, in turn, can provide the farmers that depend on them with the products they need when they need them, while saving them a great deal of money.
In addition to procuring and delivering supplies to over one million farmers, iProcure’s software and data management solutions help agro-dealers’ digitise their businesses and provide invaluable data insight into regional agricultural input demand, price sensitivity, and creditworthiness. iProcure has used this insight to extend Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) services to over 1,500 agro-dealers.
The company reportedly closed a $10.2 million Series B funding round in 2022 that raised debt and equity from a diverse group of international investors. The fund it said, will support iProcure’s expansion into Uganda and Tanzania, as well as the launch of a credit offering for agro-retailers to purchase supplies on credit.
The Series B round of funding which was led by I&P saw participation from Novastar Ventures, British International Investment (BII), and Ceniarth.