Afrikamart, a West African agritech start-up has closed a $850,000 seed round of financing from venture capital groups including the BLOC Smart Africa fund managed by Bamboo Capital Partners, Orange Digital Ventures, Launch Africa and Teranga Capital.
The proceeds from the financing will allow the company to ramp-up its purchases from smallholder farmers across the country and efficiently manage the logistics and last mile delivery of 14 fresh types of vegetables directly to street vendors and small retailers, restaurants and hotels in Dakar and Mbour.
Afrikamart’s end-to-end solution allows a formalisation of the fresh food value chain and the empowerment of small market operators. To date, nearly 2,000 farmers have provided Afrikamart with fresh produce; up to 10 tons have been delivered per day to 500 regular customers across 4 cities in Senegal. The company expects to have onboarded a total of 5,000 farmers and 2,000 retailers by year-end.
