Agritech firm, Releaf, secures $3.3 million in pre-series A funding

Releaf, a Nigerian agritech company that supplies ingredients to consumer goods manufacturers for their factories has successfully raised $3.3 million in an oversubscribed pre-series A funding round.

The startup said the funds will support the roll-out of key technologies that could further drive the development and sophistication of Africa’s crude oil processing techniques.

According to Releaf, this could possibly lead to a much-needed increase in vegetable oil production on the continent.

Having raised $4.2 million in 2021 in its seed round; $2.7 million from investors and $1.5 million in grants, this new raise will support the launch of two key technologies for Releaf.

These are Kraken II, a portable version of its popular palm nut de-sheller and SITE, a geospatial mapping application that informs the most profitable positioning of food processing assets.

Releaf was started in 2017 by co-founders Ikenna Nzewi and Uzoma Ayogu with a mission to improve Africa’s food security while building a successful agritech company.

The $3.3 million funding round was led by returning investor Samurai Incubate Africa, with participation from Consonance Investment Managers.

Bain Capital chairman Stephen Pagliuca and World Wildlife Fund board member and Inclusive Capital Partners founder Jeff Ubben also contributed to the funding.

Releaf’s co-founder Uzoma Ayogu said that in order to make supply chains profitable, there must be maximisation of extraction yields.

This is with leading processing technology as well as minimizing logistics costs by bringing processing capacity closer to farmers.

“Before Releaf, stakeholders had to choose between one or the other. Large factories had great technology but were far away, leaving most farmers with rudimentary technology to process their crops," he said. 

"We’re now able to maximise both."

Samurai Incubate Africa managing partner Rena Yoneyama expressed excitement to continue investing in Releaf’s ambitious plans to create efficient supply chains within Africa’s agricultural market.

“They have added key members to their management team and continue to impress us with their rapid commercial growth and technological development," Yoneyama said.

"We look forward to more of the same success as the team rolls out Kraken II and SITE."

SITE was developed in collaboration with Professor David Lobell of Stanford University, a MacArthur “Genius” fellow and director of the Centre on Food Security and the Environment, whose team improved the process for identifying the age of oil palm trees in Nigeria.

Lobell said that he enjoyed working with Releaf and using their tree height algorithm to establish the correlation between oil palm age and height.

“This helped farmers get a better understanding of their future yields and make better data-driven decisions on sustainable replanting,” Lobell said.

“This 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.”

Releaf plans to use the comprehensive data set provided by SITE to train reinforcement learning models that will determine the most efficient placement of supply chain infrastructure for consumer goods manufacturers, establishing a strong connection with Africa’s decentralized farming system.

Releaf uses supply chain technology to process palm nuts.

Since its launch in 2021, it has seen significant growth in revenue and has secured numerous supply contracts from major consumer goods manufacturers.

Releaf’s technology aims to promote inclusive success and industrialization in Africa, which is expected to be home to 40% of the world’s population by the end of the 21 st century.

The fast-moving consumer goods market is expected to be a major economic opportunity in Africa and Releaf’s technology is designed to take advantage of this opportunity.