[Transcript] #55: Apollo Agriculture - How the AgriTech platform is supporting smallholder farmers to scale across Kenya & Africa
Transcript for podcast originally recorded on August 27, 2022
Researching and reading about Agriculture can be tricky: on one hand, it's vast and undeniably important, while on the other, it can easily come off as a bit dull.
In Aug 2022, we explored the story of Apollo Agriculture. Apollo is an AgTech platform founded in 2016 and based in Nairobi that focuses on transforming small-scale farming across Africa.
It provides end-to-end lifecycle solutions for farmers, offering credit financing to purchase scaling equipment, seed and fertilizer inputs, advisory services for improved crop yields and management, as well as insurance and market access.
By leveraging digital finance, advanced data analytics, satellite imagery, and mobile technology, the platform is designed to help farmers maximize profits while enhancing productivity.
It empowers farmers with the necessary capital, knowledge, and support to effectively scale their operations in an evolving agricultural landscape. In its first six years, Apollo raised between $60M and $70M, highlighting its significant growth and strong investor confidence.
Companies discussed: Apollo Agriculture, The Climate Corporation (WeatherBill), Pula, FarmDrive, Monsanto, FairMoney & Kuda Bank
Business concepts discussed: Agricultural Technology (AgriTech or AgTech), smallholder farmers, Risk mitigation, Debt funding, Customer acquisition costs (CAC) & Customer lifetime value (LTV, CLV)
Enjoy!
Olumide Ogunsanwo
Personal: Website
Afrobility Podcast: Stories and analyses of African technology companies (Website, Listen: Apple podcasts, Spotify & Google podcasts & Read: Substack Newsletter)
Adamantium Fund: African B2B fund focused on education, health, finance, food and transportation (Website & memo)
Firedom Book: Financial Independence stories of African Immigrants (Website, Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)
Transcript starts here
[00:00:00] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Today, we're going to talk about Apollo Agriculture, the Kenyan Agritech company. We will explore Apollo’s story through five areas: 1) the African agriculture context; 2) Apollo’s launch and early history; 3) product development and monetization strategy; 4) competitive positioning along with potential exit options; and (5) our overall outlook. This episode is recorded on August 21st, 2022.
B-Dub. Let’s go!
[00:00:21] Bankole Makanju: All right man, it's been a long time. Are you ready?
[00:00:24] Olumide Ogunsanwo: It's been a minute. I missed my sleep this morning and it's 9:00 PM when we're recording this. It's been a minute since we've done a podcast, but we're back one more. I missed you too, bro. I'm comfortable saying it.
[00:00:44] Bankole Makanju: Yes! What are we talking about today?
[00:00:45] Olumide Ogunsanwo: We're talking about Apollo.
[00:00:50] Bankole Makanju: Not conjunctivitis, which is what we call Apollo in Nigeria.
[00:00:51] Olumide Ogunsanwo: We are NOT talking about eye disease today. In fact, we haven't spoken about agriculture since I think the middle of 2021, which was episode 26. It's good to get back to an important topic.
[00:01:00] Bankole Makanju: We're talking about Apollo agriculture and agricultural services startup. That's how I would describe it. I'll talk a bit about what they do. The way the founder keeps talking about his company is that they are trying to help farmers make more money across the entire value chain.
[00:01:36] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Apollo agriculture is a tech platform that helps small skill farmers maximize their profits. However, if you want to use actual corporate fancy, speak then Apollo provides end to end lifecycle solutions for farmers, including access to credit financing, which is working capital to buy things. Farmers also need seeds and fertilizers, inputs, advisory services, basically advice. they get better yield and then insurance.