Market Place-9th Ale - Mercy Corps AgriFin-ALE

Market Place

AgBase

AgBase is a business intelligence platform providing real-time data and insights on agtech and foodtech in emerging markets. Backed by the Gates Foundation and FCDO, and hosted by Briter with MercyCorps AgriFin, it aims to strengthen knowledge, attract investment in digital solutions, and ultimately improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Lersha

Lersha provides a wide range of services to smallholders, agro-pastoralists and commercial farmers in Ethiopia through its digital platform. These services include farm input & mechanization services, facilitating aggregation, agro-climate advisory & crop extension and access to finance. The platform is accessible via an in-house designed mobile application and call center, both available in multiple languages. Lersha is committed to using digitalization to revolutionize the agriculture sector and improve the livelihoods of farmers in Ethiopia.

AgNexus Africa

AgNexus Africa is a data-driven insights consultancy firm dedicated to transforming how agricultural decisions are made across East Africa.
We empower market players to make smarter, data-driven decisions through insights based on almost real-time data that reflect how small holder farmers invest in agricultural inputs.
Our tailored solutions include Mavuno POS for inventory and sales management, Petrichor for stock financing access, and Mwalimu LLM, an AI digital smart assistant that helps agrodealers run their businesses more effectively.

ISDA

iSDA is redefining African agriculture with Virtual Agronomist – the continent’s fastest-growing AI-powered advisory platform, delivered via WhatsApp. Launched in 2024, it has already supported over 250,000 farmers across multiple countries, boosting yields and incomes at a fraction of the cost of traditional extension. Powered by iSDAsoil – Africa’s first high-resolution soil map – Virtual Agronomist delivers expert, hyperlocal advice rooted in science. With scale as our goal, we’re building the AI engine of African agriculture.

Kifiya

Kifiya builds and enables interconnected technology infrasttures and market solutions that capacitate banks, fintech, and marketplaces to extend financial services to MSMES and SHFS. Our technology and sytem-change solutions address structural barriers and catalyze sector transformation, moving the ecosystem toward sustainable and inclusive finance at scale. Through Al-driven infrastructure and alternative data decisioning, alongside intelligent financial infrastructure, Kifiya removes collateral barriers and delivers un-collateralized credit at scale. To date, more than 1.2 million loans worth over ETB 50.4 billion (~USD 320 million) have reached 318,000 MSMEs, reshaping a financial system that once served only 350,000 large borrowers. Six Ethiopian banks currently deploy Kifiya’s platforms, with expansion across Sub-Saharan Africa underway. Our Solutions include credit scoring, fraud detection, loan management, and digital agriculture, which empower financial institutions to meet diverse market needs. Behind this innovation is a team with more than 100 years of combined leadership experience in technology, finance, and Impact.

Reimagining Insurance through Behavioral Research

Busara provides Research-as-a-Service (RaaS) that brings behavioral science into the heart of inclusive insurance innovation. Using tools such as behavioral diagnostics, discrete choice experiments, eye-tracking, co-creation workshops, and field experiments, we uncover how people perceive, trust, and adopt risk management solutions. Our work goes beyond technical design—helping insurers, development partners, and governments prototype, test, and scale insurance products that are intuitive, trusted, and tailored to the realities of smallholder farmers, savings groups, and underserved communities.

icipe

Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, icipe was established in 1970, to address this very paradox of insects and accompanying challenges. The Centre’s mission is to use insect science for sustainable development, to ensure food security and improve the overall health of communities in Africa by addressing the interlinked problems of poverty, poor health, low agricultural productivity and environmental degradation. The centre has developed and disseminated several environmentally safe, affordable, acceptable and accessible tools and strategies to control insect pests and disease vectors, and the sustainable conservation and utilisation of Africa’s rich biodiversity.

agriBORA

agriBORA is an agri-fintech company balancing technology with a human touch to de-risk smallholder agriculture and unlock efficient grain trade across East Africa. Our flagship platform, agriGHALA, integrates:

· Certified, climate-safe storage to preserve grain quality.

· Warehouse Receipt Financing (WRF) that converts stored crops into collateral, providing farmers with up to 70% of crop value as instant cash flow.

· Digital market linkages that connect depositors directly to vetted institutional buyers.

· Climate intelligence delivering real-time price and weather alerts.

By coupling these services with post-harvest management training and an electronic warehouse receipt system (eWRS), agriGHALA cuts grain losses by up to 30%, boosts farmer incomes through quality preservation and better sales timing, and eliminates dependence on exploitative middlemen.

Rhea

Rhea is an Agri-Tech delivering precision soil health and farm input recommendations through affordable, data-driven technologies with a vision to reduce input waste and improve crop productivity. Rhea is empowering smallholder farmers with actionable insights to make better decisions for yield, income, sustainability, and the environment.

Shamba Shape Up

Shamba Shape Up is a fun and engaging farm makeover show in Kenya, reaching over 4 million viewers every week, where learning truly meets entertainment! Each episode brings real farmers together with experts to tackle everyday challenges, boost productivity, and embrace climate-smart practices. With its lively mix of tips, inspiration, and laughter, this award-winning TV series empowers millions to grow better, earn more, and live sustainably, one shamba at a time!

eProd Solutions

eProd Solutions is a digital supply chain management platform designed for agricultural value chains. It empowers cooperatives, SMEs, and agribusinesses with tools for traceability, compliance (EUDR, Organic, Fairtrade), and inclusive growth. By digitizing farmer records, transactions, and extension services, eProd enhances transparency, efficiency, and access to finance. Scalable across crops and regions, it supports sector-wide impact through partnerships, MoUs, and cluster coordination—positioning digitalization as a driver of resilience, empowerment, and sustainable agriculture.

Extension Africa

Extension Africa is a private extension service provider revolutionizing rural farmer engagement in Africa. We connect agribusinesses to farming communities to boost product sales and strengthen brand presence. Our approach utilizes localized training and demo plots to drive adoption. Our key products include FarmEx, our digital marketplace that serves as an Uber for extension agents; AFREXA, the Africa Agribusiness Extension Academy for blended learning; and Abokin Noma, an AI powered chatbot for farmers and agents.

Project Mocha

Project Mocha is a blockchain-powered platform providing smallholder coffee farmers with direct access to global finance and advanced farm management. By allowing consumers to invest in climate-resilient coffee farms, one tree at a time, we create a transparent, sustainable funding loop where investors share in the economic return and farmers receive the upfront capital they need to thrive.

AgriScanAI

AgriScanAI is an offline-first, AI-powered mobile application that empowers smallholder farmers to diagnose crop pests and diseases, access localized farming insights, and easily record farm expenses, income, and yields for better management. It comes with a robust web platform, designed for farmer NGOs, development agencies, aggregators, and organizations supporting farmers, and equipped with intuitive dashboards, a payments and disbursements module, and advanced financial tracking tools. The platform transforms complex farm data into actionable insights, enabling smarter decision-making.

IDH

Farmer Data Explorer is a practical data hub for smallholder agriculture. It brings together reliable evidence on farmer profiles, access to inputs and services, finance and markets, farming practices, and climate and financial resilience. By turning complex survey data into clear, comparable insights, it helps agribusinesses, financial/service providers, investors and support organisations make confident, evidence-based decisions. The result is a shared, trusted fact base everyone can rally around to design, invest and scale what work

Ketha

Ketha – The AgriFin platform that powers Agri – SME’s by digitizing the Agriculture value chain and offering sustainable financial solutions to Agri – SME’s and Small Holder Farmers.

AGX AI

AGX AI is a collaborative initiative led by DevGlobal and Dev-Afrique, with support from the Gates Foundation. We work with partners across Africa, Asia, and beyond to build a vibrant community of communities—a global network of funders, researchers, NGOs, technologists, farmers, and policymakers—ensuring AI serves the people at the heart of our food systems. Together, we’re developing inclusive, locally grounded AI tools that strengthen smallholder farming communities and advance equitable, sustainable food systems worldwide.