Earthbanc

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Earthbanc is a green digital investment platform incentivising effective, systemic action on climate change by building and deploying superior carbon offsets through the financial & corporate market segments. This supports businesses and individual customers alike to offset their emissions while directly investing in high impact, high quality regenerative projects around the world.

Using satellite technology and machine learning, Earthbanc is increasing the efficiency of carbon verification in both trees and soil by 80,000-fold, thereby opening carbon markets to 500 million small and large holders, who can now monetise their carbon. This solves many of the social inequity problems that current approaches to forest and carbon projects create. Earthbanc verified carbon offsets provide deep social and environmental impact, and track biodiversity metrics, making them the obvious choice for businesses that are serious about contributing to the SDGs.

Earthbanc provides a digital platform for financial services to channel investments into renewables, regenerative agriculture and conservation projects. Earthbanc’s carbon portfolio focuses on high impact projects such as protecting biodiversity hotspot forests and ecosystems, regenerative agriculture and agroforestry. These provide some of the most cost effective climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits, whilst also strengthening livelihoods and empowering communities to thrive. On its platform, Earthbanc offers a Grow Bond that achieved 6 percent return (2019) whilst sequestering two tonnes carbon for every $100 invested.

In 2020, Earthbanc “graduated” from a Central Bank Blockchain Fintech Sandbox, proving the robustness of its blockchain technology. Other backers of Earthbanc are the European Space Agency Business Incubator, EIT Climate-KIC Nordic Accelerator and impact investors globally.95

95 ‘Earthbanc - Green Digital Banking & Investment Platform’. n.d. Earthbanc. Accessed 16 September 2020. https://earthbanc.io/about/.

STAKEHOLDERS:

EIT Climate-KIC Nordic Accelerator

Ergos Communal Warehousing

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Farmers are typically forced to sell their produce immediately after harvesting, when the price is lowest, due to limited access to storage facilities and finance. Ergos Business Solutions addresses this barrier by operating a network of micro warehouses that enables farmers to store their produce, reduce waste, use the stored goods as collateral to access immediate financial liquidity, and sell the produce when it reaches the desired price.96

Through a mobile app, Ergos provides farmers with a warehouse stock count and real-time market prices. Farmers can use digital warehouse receipts as collateral with loan providers to access short-term funding allowing them to wait to sell the produce at a higher price.97 Maize farmers who use the facilities have sold their produce at prices 20-30 percent higher than before using Ergos.98 Through its work, Ergos is providing better livelihoods for farmers as well as reducing food loss and waste at the production level.

Ergos is supported by Aavishkaar, an early-stage impact investor focused on rural enterprises in underserved geographies. Aavishkaar has a track record of $155 million invested in 300 start-ups since its launch in 2001.

96 Shailesh Menon. 2017. ‘Mobile Services: How Tech-Enabled Agriculture Ventures Are Offering Farm Related Services via Mobile Phones’. The Economic Times. 29 August 2017. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/how-tech-enabled-agriculture-ventures-are-offering-farm-related-services-via-mobile-phones/articleshow/60265335.cms.

97 ‘Empowering Participation from Farmers’. n.d. Ergos. https://ergos.in/.

98 Shailesh Menon. 2017. ‘Mobile Services: How Tech-Enabled Agriculture Ventures Are Offering Farm Related Services via Mobile Phones’. The Economic Times. 29 August 2017. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/how-tech-enabled-agriculture-ventures-are-offering-farm-related-services-via-mobile-phones/articleshow/60265335.cms.

STAKEHOLDERS:

Ergos Business Solutions; Aavishkaar

FarMart

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FarMart is an agri-fintech platform based out of India, that helps smallholder farmers receive digital credit and farm inputs. Through this, it aims to fill the credit gap (less than 20 percent of Indian smallholders have access to formal credit99) faced by India’s rural farmers.

FarMart’s proprietary credit underwriting algorithms analyse smallholders’ creditworthiness based on 50 alternative soft and hard data points. This reduces credit transaction costs and time enabling farmers access to formal credit. No cash disbursement is given to farmers, ensuring zero misutilization of funds. Farmers receive a virtual credit card (a 10-digit credit number on their mobile phone) through which they can buy high- quality seeds, fertiliser and other inputs from offline merchant partners. The loans are tied to a farmers’ harvest cycles and offer flexible repayment options (in small amounts of bullet repayment) as the farmers have seasonal cash flows. This increases farmers’ income by smoothening the entire cycle of credit for the farmer. The resulting flexibility has increased FarMart farmer’s productivity by 15-20 percent.100 In 2020, FarMart has joined the Catalyst Fund portfolio.101

Within its pilot phase, FarMart reached over 300 farmers and, distributed over $20,000 in credit, of which less than one percent did not perform. FarMart is planning to scale up to over 100,000 farmers, distributing approximately $13 million in credit as of October 2020.102 FarMart is also exploring partnerships with advisory companies for weather and crop advisory services for its farmers to further improve their productivity.

99 Garima Bora. 2019. ‘For Agriculture Financing, the Future May Be Cashless Loans’. The Economic Times, 2 September 2019. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/features/for-agriculture-financing-the-future-may-be-cashless-loans-farmart/articleshow/70942275.cms.

100 ‘FarMart’. n.d. FarMart. Accessed 16 September 2020. http://www.farmart.co/.

101 Thea Sokolowski. 2020. ‘Catalyst Fund Welcomes New Cohort of Inclusive Fintech Startups’. BFA Global (blog). 30 January 2020. https://bfaglobal.com/catalyst-fund/insights/catalyst-fund-new-cohort-fintech-startups/.

102 Meha Agarwal. 2019. ‘Agri-Fintech Startup FarMart Looks To Bring Cashless Loans To India’s Distressed Farmers’. Inc42 Media (blog). 30 May 2019. https://inc42.com/startups/agrifintech-startup-farmart-brings-cashless-loans-to-farmers/.

STAKEHOLDERS:

Arthimpact; Catalyst Fund

Farmcrowdy

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Farmcrowdy, Nigeria’s first digital agricultural platform, connects smallholder farmers in Nigeria with financing, insurance, technical assistance and direct access to end customers. Through these services, it aims to increase investment in, and empower smallholder farmers to boost Africa’s food security.

Through the platform, (international) investors invest in crop cycles from inception to harvest, equipping farmers to invest in productivity-enhancing tools and practices, with guaranteed purchase of produce to off-takers. In addition, farmers are given on-the-ground advice and training in agricultural practices.103

Farmcrowdy uses a profit-sharing model splitting the post-harvest profit between key stakeholders: 40 percent for farm sponsors; 40 percent for farmers; and 20 percent for Farmcrowdy. The platform coordinates with pre-arranged buyers to sell the farm harvest when the crop cycle is complete.104,105

Return-on-investment for sponsors has been between 6 and 25%, depending on the crop, with the risk of crop failure mitigated by an insurance cover. So far, the platform has connected more than 25,000 small-scale farmers with over 4,000 unique sponsors. Launched by young entrepreneur Onyeka Akumah, the platform not only facilitates increased investment and market opportunities for farmers but is itself generating jobs and driving growth in a fundamental sector of sub-Saharan Africa’s economy.106

103 Assan Ng’ombe, and Julia Turner. 2019. ‘People, Health and Nature: A Sub-Saharan African Transformation Agenda’. London: Food and Land Use Coalition. https://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FOLU-SubSaharanAfrica_EnglishFullReport.pdf.

104 Elikplim Gah. n.d. ‘FarmCrowdy Celebrates First Anniversary with the Launch of A New Mobile App’. The Spirited Hub. http://thespiritedhub.com/farmcrowdy-celebrates-first-anniversary-with-the-launch-of-a-new-mobile-app/.

105 Jake Bright. 2017. ‘FarmCrowdy Raises $1M Round to Bring Nigerian Farmers Online and to Market’. TechCrunch (blog). 18 December 2017. https://social.techcrunch.com/2017/12/18/1579210/.

106 Assan Ng’ombe, and Julia Turner. 2019. ‘People, Health and Nature: A Sub-Saharan African Transformation Agenda’. London: Food and Land Use Coalition. https://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FOLU-SubSaharanAfrica_EnglishFullReport.pdf.

STAKEHOLDERS:

Investors; GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund; Ajayi Solutions; Niche Capital Christof Walter; Cox Enterprises

Hello Tractor

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Africa’s “Uber for Farmers”, Hello Tractor is an Internet-of-Things solution for shared services in agriculture, enabling smallholder farmers to connect with tractor owners via a digital platform and SMS service.107 Founded in Nigeria, the service is now also active in Kenya, Mozambique, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Based on a pay-as-you-use model, farmers can hire affordable equipment inputs to boost agricultural yields, while remote asset tracking and virtual monitoring provide security to tractor owners. Hello Tractor reduces investment costs of farming by turning an unaffordable fixed cost into a variable one, helping to fill the mechanisation gap that characterises much of smallholder agriculture in rural sub-Saharan Africa and lowering the barriers to entry for young people to engage in agriculture.108

The service allows tractor owners and dealers to also benefit through services like demand management, tractor and fleet management and performance monitoring. The company has captured 75 percent of private commercial tractor inflows to Nigeria and supported over 250,000 farmers.109

Hello Tractor has partnered with IBM to pilot an advanced agricultural decision-making and analytics tool to operates across its services. This service utilises IBM blockchain and artificial intelligence: a) provide relevant information to farmers on when to cultivate, what to plant and the appropriate fertiliser to use, as well as predictions regarding crop yields to help develop a credit score for loans; b) help tractor owners optimise operations by forecasting future fleet utilisation and predicting maintenance; c) provide real time information to tractor dealers on repair and servicing needs; d) enable banks and financial institutions to make better-informed credit decisions for farmers and tractor owners based on trusted and forecasted data; e) inform government policy around incentives, regulations and investment prioritisation.110

107 ‘Hello Tractor | Break Ground’. n.d. Hello Tractor. https://hellotractor.com/.

108 Assan Ng’ombe, and Julia Turner. 2019. ‘People, Health and Nature: A Sub-Saharan African Transformation Agenda’. London: Food and Land Use Coalition. https://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FOLU-SubSaharanAfrica_EnglishFullReport.pdf.

109 Assan Ng’ombe, and Julia Turner. 2019. ‘People, Health and Nature: A Sub-Saharan African Transformation Agenda’. London: Food and Land Use Coalition. https://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FOLU-SubSaharanAfrica_EnglishFullReport.pdf.

110 ‘Hello Tractor | Break Ground’. n.d. Hello Tractor. https://hellotractor.com/.

STAKEHOLDERS:

Hello Tractor; IBM

SunCulture

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SunCulture is a technology company aiming to empower and increase smallholder farmers’ yields through the development, financing and sale of off-the-grid solar-powered water pumps.

Many smallholder farmers in Africa are relying on expensive diesel-powered or unreliable and labour-intensive manual irrigation techniques for their crops. Powered by solar energy, SunCulture’s irrigation systems significantly reduce farmers’ operating cost. SunCulture has a wide variety of products, ranging from basic solar-powered water pumps, solar-powered irrigation systems (including Africa’s first commercial solar-powered product), ans a “ClimateSmart Battery” irrigation system that also powers a household’s lights, charges phones and has an optional TV power supply add-on. 111 Additionally, SunCulture is offering business advice to smallholder farmers and offers “pay-as-you-go” financing, enabling smallholder farmers to close the financing gap to acquiring irrigation systems. 112 So far, SunCulture has been a success, with farmers reporting increases of up to three times usual crop yields where new irrigation systems are installed, significant cost reductions when SunCulture’s systems replace fuel-powered water pumps, and a significant labour reduction where they replace manually operated wells. SunCulture currently operates out of Nairobi, Kenya and serves the African market. The company vision is to expand globally, targeting the 500+ million smallholder farming households around the world. 113

111 ‘Products’. n.d. SunCulture. Accessed 28 September 2020. http://www.sunculture.com/index.php/products/.

112 ‘The Solar Rain Maker’. n.d. Pretoria, South Africa: Energy and Environment Partnership / Southern and Eastern Africa. Accessed 28 September 2020. https://eepafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IBM_SunCulture.pdf.

113 ‘The Solar Rain Maker’. n.d. Pretoria, South Africa: Energy and Environment Partnership / Southern and Eastern Africa. Accessed 28 September 2020. https://eepafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IBM_SunCulture.pdf.

STAKEHOLDERS:

USAID; SNV; PG Impact Investments; EEP Africa; Energy Access Ventures; REEEP; Shell Foundation; EDF; Microsoft; GSMA; MIT