Ghanaian agri-tech startup Complete Farmer has secured a US$2.4 million convertible loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to scale up and finance inputs and agronomy services for farmers, complemented by US$480,000 in advisory to strengthen its systems and capacity to expand farmer financing.
Founded in 2017, Complete Farmer is an agricultural trading company connecting international commodity buyers with smallholder farmers across Ghana and Togo. The company works with more than 72,000 farmers and supplies international buyers, including Aldi and Lidl, and its operations are supported by more than 350 field agents and eight fulfillment centres responsible for aggregation, grading, quality control and export logistics.
The startup has expanded beyond agricultural trading, developing a marketplace for farm inputs and equipment and a credit product that uses farm data to help farmers access financing.
Complete Farmer raised US$10.4 million in pre-Series A funding back in September 2023, and last year banked US$2.5 million from the European Union-funded AgriFI facility to boost its expansion efforts. It has now secured further capital from the IFC, with support from the Business Investment Financing Track (BIFT) of the GAFSP, to help it connect more smallholder farmers with financial institutions. The partnership is expected to expand and provide support to 240,000 farmers, including facilitating access to finance by 2030. “For us, this partnership is about making finance work better for farmers,” said Desmond Koney, CEO of Complete Farmer.
“Too many farmers with the capacity to grow commercially still struggle to access the financing they need to do so. Over the years, we have focused on building the technology, data and market infrastructure that makes it possible to better understand farmers, support their production and connect what they grow to real demand. Our partnership with IFC allows us to build on that foundation and scale our input financing model, so that more farmers have the resources and support they need to grow sustainably and participate more meaningfully in agricultural markets.”