When Priscillah Wakerera and Soinato Leboo founded Rhea, an agritech startup that provides soil testing to smallholder farmers in Kenya, in 2022, getting funding from investors was much harder.
Fintechs and e-commerce startups were still the darlings of VCs. Investments into climate and agri tech were low , while founders who managed to raise funds had to contend with lower valuations than other sectors.
Rhea, which collects and analyses soil samples to help farmers choose fertilisers and seeds suitable for their farms, is part of a constellation of African startups that caught the attention of investors at the just concluded AfricaArena climate summit in Nairobi. Rhea was awarded the best climate tech startup at the two-day event.
It was challenging to attract investors because the focus on soil health improvement wasnt mainstream. However, as we demonstrated traction in our core market and aligned with the growing focus on climate change, impact investing, and agricultural technology, weve seen more interest from both local and international investors, Priscilla Wakarera, Rhea Co-Founder and CEO told TechCabal.
While VC funding for startups has been on a general decline, the proportion of money flowing to climate mitigation and adaptation startups is growing. Since 2019, the sector has raised over $3.5 billion.
