Accra-based Degas Ltd., led by CEO Doga Makiura, has secured an additional $7 million in funding, bringing its total funding to $16 million. The equity and debt round saw participation from investors, including Animal Spirits, Global Catalyst Partners Japan, Hakuhodo DY Ventures, Nanto CVC (operated by Nanto Bank and Nanto Capital Partners), and Primal Capital.
The company provides financial support to smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, addressing the challenges they face in obtaining loans from traditional financial institutions. Degas employs a combination of on-the-ground operations, proprietary technologies, mobile apps, AI-driven credit decisions, and data collection methodologies to offer financing to smallholder farmers.
Degas has already financed 46,000 smallholder farmers in Africa, leveraging a robust farmer management platform that includes real-time syncing capabilities in areas with unstable internet access. The company’s mobile apps, AI-driven credit decisions, and data collection methodologies have created one of Africa’s largest data-driven farmer networks, with over 27,000 farmers financed this year.
The funding will further expand Degas’ farmer-financing business and implement its in-house-developed platform to enhance climate tech and marketplace formation businesses. Degas has partnered with Nestlé since 2022 to develop regenerative agriculture (RA) projects in Africa. RA is a farming method aimed at sequestering CO2 without reducing agricultural productivity. The projects include implementing RA on 1,000 acres of scattered farmland, making it the largest RA project in Africa and developing countries. Degas plans to use the funding to expand regenerative agriculture efforts, issue large-scale high-integrity carbon credits, and hire carbon credits and data analysis experts.
Degas has also initiated new businesses to provide financing opportunities through third-party organizations, collaborating with European microfinance institutions and Fuji Oil Group. The funding will support the broadening of product development, extending visualization of results, and creating a marketplace offering diverse products such as school loans, agricultural machinery leasing, and smartphone contracts.
