Through its merchant network known as digishops, Shamba Pride has been working since 2016 to improve last-mile distribution for agriculture inputs and address price exploitation and quality issues for farmers.
So far, the agtech has established a network of 2,700 merchants, or agro-dealers, spanning 24 counties in Kenya, or slightly more than half of the entire nation. It now intends to expand further into the nation in order to reach more retailers and agricultural areas within the next year. After that, it will investigate neighbouring markets like Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, which face comparable supply chain issues with regard to farm inputs, such as sourcing, unstable pricing, quality issues, and stockouts.
Through a $3.7 million debt-equity pre-series, it will expand its franchise network and drive its growth in Kenya. The startup has received finance from Seedstars Africa Ventures (SAV) and the EU farm financing project, EDFI AgriFI. The $1.7 million equity portion of the new fundraising comes after SAV and Grey Matters Capital raised $1.1 million in capital in 2021.