The archive · Money & Fintech · Product decision · 2016–2026
Apollo Agriculture's ML-loan bet: SoftBank $40M, then first farm securitisation
Kenyan agri-fintech bundles credit, inputs, insurance and ML-scored advice for smallholders; SoftBank-led $40M Series B, 350,000+ farmers by 2024
Apollo Agriculture
What the business is
Apollo Agriculture is a Kenyan agri-fintech that sells smallholder farmers a bundle of credit, certified inputs (seed and fertiliser), crop insurance and agronomic advice, using machine learning and satellite imagery to underwrite borrowers traditional lenders ignore.
Starting capital：$40M Series B (2022) plus $6M Series A (2020); over $16M in debt funding for onward lending as of 2022
How it started
Founded in 2016 by Eli Pollak, Benjamin Njenga and Earl St Sauver — Pollak and St Sauver had worked at US ag-tech The Climate Corporation. Their bet: data-driven farming tools could work for smallholders outside the US, roughly doubling output and shifting farmers from subsistence to commercial production.
What happened
After a $6M Series A in 2020, Apollo grew tenfold by 2022 through a network of 5,000 agents and 1,000+ retailers. In March 2022 it raised a $40M Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, joined by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, CDC, Yara Growth Ventures and others, planning to double its 100,000 farmers by end-2022 and expand across East and West Africa.
How it ended up
Apollo is still running and expanding: by January 2024 it had integrated over 350,000 farmers, added a $10M Swedfund/ImpactConnect investment for Kenya and Zambia, and in May 2026 closed Kenya's first private-sector local-currency securitisation of smallholder farm loans.
Background
Apollo Agriculture, founded in 2016 by Eli Pollak, Benjamin Njenga and Earl St Sauver, sells Kenyan smallholder farmers a bundle of credit, certified inputs, crop insurance and agronomic advice, underwritten by machine-learning models and satellite imagery rather than collateral. Pollak and St Sauver came from US ag-tech The Climate Corporation.
The company started with maize — a crop nearly every East African farmer plants — to earn trust and repayment history before pushing higher-value crops. After a $6M Series A in 2020 it grew tenfold, and in March 2022 raised a $40M Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, CDC, Yara Growth Ventures and others, when it served about 100,000 farmers through 5,000 agents and 1,000+ retailers.
Expansion continued: by January 2024 Apollo had integrated more than 350,000 farmers, distributed 7,000 tonnes of fertiliser to over 100,000 farmers in November 2023, and taken a $10M investment from Swedfund and ImpactConnect to expand its machine-learning platform and credit services in Kenya and Zambia.
In May 2026 Apollo completed Kenya's first private-sector local-currency securitisation of smallholder farm loans: a KSh 276 million tranche backed by 23,839 mostly female farmers, the first slice of a planned KSh 2.37 billion programme covering over 130,000 farmers. CEO Eli Pollak said the structure lowers Apollo's cost of funds and frees capital for new lending.
What has to be true
- Smallholders were treated as unbankable, but Apollo showed repayment risk could be scored with ML and satellite data instead of collateral.
- Bundling credit with inputs and insurance aligned incentives: the loan finances what the farmer needs to succeed, and insurance protects both farmer and lender.
- Maize as a wedge gave Apollo trust and repayment data with nearly every East African farmer before it pushed higher-value crops.
- The 2026 securitisation proved the asset class: institutional investors bought smallholder loan streams in local currency, unlocking cheaper capital for more lending.
What can be applied
Prove creditworthiness with data, not collateral: Apollo made a segment banks called unbankable lendable with ML and satellite underwriting, then proved the asset class with a securitisation.
Aftermath
As of May 2026 Apollo Agriculture continues to scale. It had integrated more than 350,000 farmers by January 2024, expanded to Zambia with a $10M Swedfund/ImpactConnect investment, and in May 2026 closed Kenya's first private-sector local-currency securitisation of smallholder farm loans — a KSh 276 million first tranche backed by 23,839 mostly female farmers, the start of a planned KSh 2.37 billion programme covering over 130,000 farmers.
Sources
- Kenya-based agritech Apollo raises $40 million in Softbank-led round, joined by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, CDC
- Apollo Agriculture to Scale Operations After Swedfund Investment
- Apollo Agriculture Unlocks KSh276 mn by Securitizing Smallholder Farmers' Loans
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