Releaf, a Nigerian Agritech company that supplies ingredients to food factories, says it has raised 3.3 million dollars to unveil new technologies to drive profitability for consumer goods manufacturers.
Releaf in a statement on Monday said that the money was raised in an over subscribed pre -series A funding round.
It said that the new funding would support the launch of two new technologies, Kraken II, a portable version of its award-winning palm nut de-sheller and SITE , a geospatial mapping application that informs the most profitable positioning of food processing assets.
According to Releaf, the funding round was led by Samurai Incubate Africa, who re-invested after leading Releaf’s seed round, with participation from Consonance Investment Managers.
It said that others were Stephen Pagliuca, Chairman of Bain Capital and Jeff Ubben, Board member at World Wildlife Fund.
Uzoma Ayogu, the Co-founder of Releaf said: “SITE and Kraken II are the next steps in our plan to fundamentally transform the efficiency of agricultural supply chains in Africa.
“We are excited to have partnered with an exceptional cohort of investors and collaborators to roll out these technologies.
“To make food supply chains profitable, we must maximise extraction yields with leading processing technology and minimise logistics costs by bringing processing capacity closer to farmers, “Ayogu said.
The co-founder said Africa would represent 40 per cent of the human population by the end of the 21st century and the fast-moving consumer goods market would emerge as its first globally relevant industrial sector.
He said that Releaf’s technology was designed to accelerate industrialisation while ensuring inclusive success for the planet, farmers, food factories, and consumers in one of the greatest economic opportunities globally.
Ayogu said that one of the new technologies called SITE was developed in collaboration with Stanford University’s Prof. David Lobell, a Fellow and Director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment.
Ayogu said the professor’s team led the refinement of the age identification process for oil palm trees in Nigeria.
Rena Yoneyama, Managing Partner at Samurai Incubate Africa, said “Releaf’s success with its pilot Kraken validates its thesis, and we are excited to continue supporting their ambitious vision to create efficient supply chains within Africa’s agricultural market.
Prof. David Lobell, who works at Stanford University said: “I enjoyed working with Releaf and using our tree height algorithm to establish the correlation between oil palm age and height to help farmers to get a better understanding of their future yields.
“There is a great opportunity to unlock Africa’s unique agricultural potential by leveraging remote sensing solutions, and I believe this partnership will be a catalyst, “Lobell said.
