Skudu raises funding from leading agri-food tech investor

South Africa: South African agri-tech startup Skudu has raised funding from AgVentures, one of Africa’s leading agrifood tech investors, to help it in its goal of becoming the leading online marketplace for agricultural inputs and produce on the continent.

Launched in 2018, Skudu helps agribusinesses lower input costs while increasing yields by mastering agronomy, or soil science, through technology.

For farmers, the platform is offered for free and allows them to digitally manage their farm, from what dosage of fertilizer to apply where, to reporting, to block management and note-taking, with multi-user access and offline functionality.

Skudu wants to scale across Africa, and with that in mind has raised an undisclosed round of funding from AgVentures.

“We are excited to partner with AgVentures given its deep agri-industry and technology expertise. As Skudu we want to make it easy for buyers and sellers to find each other on Skudu, saving them money in the process and helping them to increase their efficiency,” said Cobus van der Merwe, the leader at Skudu.

Gerhard Visagie, chief executive officer (CEO) of AgVentures, said his firm was attracted to Skudu by its experienced management team, ambitious plans, and traction.

“We believe that Skudu will bring much-needed innovation to the South African agri-food sector with future continental expansion being planned,” he said.