Regenerate Ventures Agtech Fund invests in Climate Edge
Regenerate Ventures has closed its latest investment round for the Regenerate Ventures Agtech Fund, and invested in Climate Edge.
Climate Edge is a communications and data platform that links small farmers in developing countries to a range of tools and support from a wide range of suppliers that is currently not available to them. In many instances, it will be in geographic areas where there is no internet. The support available through the platform ranges from access to better seeds, fertiliser and pesticides, advice on best practice, access to finance and insurance and much more.
Already over 700 companies providing agriculture related products and services have joined the platform, and over 150,000 farmers in Kenya and Tanzania are using the platform to improve what they do.
Climate Edge is on track to have 1 million users by the end of this year. Looking further ahead, there are around 40 million people in Kenya who live in rural areas and rely on farming for their food and income, with similar numbers in Uganda and Tanzania. Then there is the rest of Africa, and beyond.
By providing scalable technological solutions to digitise the smallholder value chain is key to unlocking value add services such finance which means that the farmers can afford better products, so that they can produce more from the same land, and ultimately will be able to sell and export their surplus.
James Alden of Climate Edge said:
‘Improving the production of food in Africa is 10x more effective at reducing poverty than any other intervention. The potential for what we are doing is massive. It is forecast that a quarter of the world’s population will be African by 2050. The investment from Regenerate Ventures will enable us to scale up what we are doing this year, and hit our targets for the business.’
Paul Rous, Founder and CEO of Regenerate Ventures said:
‘ I am delighted that we are investing in Climate Edge. It is a superb example of the type of company we are looking to invest in. A company with a unique service and meeting a huge global need. Agriculture needs to change and become massively more efficient if it is to meet the needs of a global growing population, and also help the world reach carbon net zero.’