Ghana's Complete Farmer Secures $10.4 Million to Facilitate Global Food Trade

Africa's agricultural sector has a significant socio-economic impact, with over 60% of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and agriculture contributing to approximately 23% of the region's gross domestic product (GDP), according to McKinsey. However, despite the potential in the agricultural sector, Africa faces challenges in participating effectively in global supply chains due to limitations in supply chain and infrastructure. To improve economic conditions in African countries, it is crucial to enhance productivity, especially among small and medium-sized farms.

In pursuit of this goal, Ghanaian agritech company Complete Farmer is dedicated to transforming farming practices in the region. They aim to achieve this by developing essential technical and physical infrastructure to improve efficiency in the agricultural value chain. To further their mission, Complete Farmer recently concluded a funding round, raising $10.4 million in total, with $7 million in equity and $3.4 million in debt.

The equity portion of the funding round was co-led by the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and Alitheia Capital through its uMunthu II Fund in partnership with Goodwell Investments. Other participants in the round included Proparco, Newton Partners, and VestedWorld Rising Star Fund. Debt financing was provided by Sahel Capital's SEFAA (Social Enterprise Fund for Agriculture in Africa) Fund, Alpha Mundi Group's Alpha Jiri Investment Fund, and Global Social Impact Investments.

Complete Farmer is described as an end-to-end agricultural marketplace that connects African producers with global industries, providing access to competitive markets, resources, data, and more. Their platform utilizes proprietary cultivation protocols for crop production, enabling both smallholder and commercial farmers to cultivate commodities that meet global market specifications, ensuring efficient post-harvest processes.

The journey of Complete Farmer began in 2017, and it has undergone several iterations to reach its current state. CEO Desmond Koney, a mechanical engineer, experimented with various projects before focusing on agriculture. He inherited his father's farm and identified challenges throughout the agricultural value chain. Complete Farmer initially operated as a contractor for farm cultivation on behalf of clients. In 2018, they introduced a crowdfunding platform for sustainable farming, but the disruption caused by the pandemic led to scalability and payment default issues.

In response to these challenges, Complete Farmer transitioned to an aggregator and marketplace model, similar to Thrive Agric. Leveraging its experience as a contractor and its relationship with thousands of farmers, the company provides customers with the crops they need. They also developed cultivation protocols to help farmers produce commodities that meet market demand.

Complete Farmer offers two primary solutions: CF Grower, which assists African farmers in optimizing productivity, and CF Buyer, which provides global purchasers with access to commodities grown to their specifications. The platform has experienced rapid growth, bringing together over 12,000 farmers across Ghana and overseeing the cultivation of over 30,000 acres of land. They have reduced post-harvest losses and generated significant revenue growth, with projections of reaching $7.5 million in revenue for the current year.

The company's future plans include introducing new product lines to generate additional revenue streams, expanding domestic operations, forging strategic partnerships, and launching fulfillment centers in markets like Togo.