Apollo uses the satellite imagery data of farms and AI to rate the credit-worthiness of farmers. It plans to use the new funding to refine its technology and deliver more products and services to farmers. Launched in 2016, the startup works with a network of agents, who recruit farmers and retailers to its platform.
Apollo Agriculture co-founder and CEO, Eli Pollak, while talking about their areas of priority told TechCrunch that, “We are continuing to invest in growing fast; serving more farmers, helping them grow their acreage and really hitting the acceleration on the business. And so that’ll be both continued expansion across Kenya but also expansion into new markets.”
The agritech is scouting for growth opportunities in East and West Africa.
“We are also continuing to develop products that deliver more value per acre. That could be new crops that enable customers to earn more money,” said Pollak, who co-founded Apollo with Benjamin Njenga and Earl St Sauver.
Apollo started off by working with maize farmers but helping them diversify to other high-yielding crops has been its area of focus.
“We began with maize. Maize is not perfect, but it has a profound advantage, which is that nearly every farmer plants across East Africa. This gives us a place where we can earn farmer’s trust and we can deliver value immediately,” he said.
