WeFarm, the world’s largest farmer-to-farmer digital network announced that it has raised $13 million in a Series A round of funding to expand its network of farmers.
This round is being led by True Ventures, with AgFunder, June Fund; previous investors LocalGlobe, ADV and Norrsken Foundation; and others also participating.
This brings the total raised so far by the company to $20 million, including $5 million in 2018 and £1.3m of seed funding in 2016.
WeFarm provides a two-fold service to farmers:
- a community where farmers can come together, ask each other questions or get advice on agricultural or small-holding matters;
- a marketplace where farmers can buy and sell.
WeFarm though registered in UK, has around 1.9 million registered users spread across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania
According to founder and CEO Kenny Ewan, “We are building an ecosystem for global small-scale agriculture, on behalf of farmers,” noting that there are roughly 500 million small-scale farms globally, with some 1 billion people working those holdings, which typically extend 1.5-2 hectares and often are focused around staple commercial crops like rice, coffee, cattle or vegetables. “This is probably the biggest industry on Earth, accounting for some 75-80% of the global supply chain, and yet no one has built anything for them. This is significant on many levels.”
“We are enormously inspired by how Kenny and the Wefarm team have empowered the world’s farmers, and we see great potential for their future,” said Jon Callaghan, co-founder of True Ventures, in a statement. “The company is not only impact-driven, but the impressive growth of the Wefarm Marketplace demonstrates exciting commercial opportunities that will connect those farmers to more of what they need to the benefit of all, across the food supply chain. This is a big, global business.”
