Dealflow | September 17, 2018

Egypt’s FreshSource raises seed funds to link farmers to markets

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, September 17 – The Cairo-based agtech company is trying to boost farmer incomes, cut unnecessary costs, and improve the environmental footprint of Egypt’s agricultural markets. It has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Egypt-focused venture investor HIMangel.

FreshSource launched last year to connect small farmers to urban produce buyers. “Extremely long and inefficient value chains contribute to significant food loss as well as heightened prices to the end consumer,” FreshSource’s Farah Emara said. The company buys farmers’ produce supply directly, and coordinates all of the delivery logistics, cutting out middlemen. FreshSource also provides technical support to farmers. Its hope is that the approach will help help farmers get a better purchase price, reduce end prices for consumers, and reduce food loss.

Companies like Twiga in Kenya, Agruppa in Colombia, and Doodhwala and Waycool in India have all developed similar models to support small farmers and improve food chain efficiency.

FreshSource is working with 50 vendors and more than a dozen farmers. With the seed funding, it intends to build an online platform to manage its operations.