AgTech and working capital in Africa: Early insights from an upcoming study
AgTech and Working Capital in Africa (Webinar): Early Insights from an Upcoming Study
AgTech activity across Africa remains strong, but funding and scale look very different by market and by value chain. Since 2022, total agtech funding has reset to below $200M per year, driven mainly by a sharp decline in venture equity rather than a slowdown in innovation.
Today, what scales is shaped less by technology and more by financing structure.
In some markets, such as Egypt and Morocco, corporates and other commercial investors play a large role. In others, including Kenya, much of East Africa, and parts of West Africa, DFIs, concessional funders, banks, and blended finance structures play a much larger role. Across the continent, equity’s share of funding has fallen from around 70% in 2022 to roughly 40% by 2025, while grants, debt, and hybrid instruments now dominate deal activity .
Innovation clusters around inputs, on-farm productivity, aggregation, logistics, and marketplaces, but scale remains rare. Fewer than 10% of agtech companies have raised more than $10M, with funding concentrated in a small number of asset-heavy, execution-driven models.
Across these segments, many solutions are converging around embedded finance and working-capital like marketplaces, input providers, and logistics platforms which increasingly combine technology with financing to move inputs, inventory, and payments through the value chain. While deal activity remains strongest on-farm, largely supported by grants, funding volumes are shifting toward off-farm aggregation, logistics, and infrastructure-linked businesses that can absorb larger tickets and debt reinforcing that this is as much about working-capital and supply-chain as technology.
In this session, Briter will share findings from its analysis across 12 African markets spanning North, West, East and Southern Africa, showing how innovation, finance, and agricultural value chains connect in practice. Using data and short examples from across regions, we will highlight:
which business models attract capital today,
how DFIs and blended finance enable scale,
where venture capital still works and where it doesn’t,
and why working capital flows, not just innovation, determine what actually grows.
The research underpinning the session is powered by AgBase, Briter’s agrifood intelligence platform tracking companies, funders, and investment flows across African markets. AgBase is supported by the Gates Foundation and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and works closely with partners including the World Bank, International Finance Corporation and CGIAR.
What to Expect
A structured ecosystem view
An overview of AgTech ecosystems across key African regions, highlighting how innovation patterns differ by country and value chain. We will look at where activity concentrates (inputs, aggregation, market access), how AgTech intersects with ClimateTech, FinTech, and logistics, and what these differences signal about ecosystem maturity and scale.
Who is funding what, where, and through which instruments
A clear view of the agtech and agri-finance landscape across markets. We will map the roles of venture capital, corporates, DFIs, banks, foundations, and blended finance structures, and highlight regional differences in capital deployment by stage, instrument, and geography.
Working capital in agricultural value chains
An introduction to working-capital dynamics across upstream, midstream, and enabling segments. The session will show how financing structures shape business models in practice, and why working capital challenges are central to scaling agricultural supply chains.
Discussion to inform next steps
Participants are encouraged to submit written questions throughout the session. The final segment will focus on reflections, clarifications, and gathering input from the ecosystem to inform the next phase of analysis and engagement.
Learn more about the study
For colleagues who would like additional context on the wider study ahead of the webinar, or to follow up afterwards, please contact David Saunders, Director at Briter and AgBase Programme Lead, at [email protected].