The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Strategic decision · 2014–2024
iProcure's farm-inputs bet: $17M raised, then 2024 administration
Kenya's B2B agritech linked 5,000 agro-dealers to fertilizer makers and served a million farmers, until the 2023 funding drought put it into administration.
iProcure
What the business is
Nairobi B2B agritech connecting seed, fertilizer and agrochemical makers to roughly 5,000 local agro-dealers through a mobile ERP, distribution hubs and last-mile logistics across Kenya and Uganda.
Starting capital：$17.2M raised through five rounds by August 2022, including the $10.2M Series B led by I&P with Novastar Ventures, Ceniarth and British International Investment.
How it started
Founded in Nairobi around 2014 by Nicole Galletta, Stefano Carcoforo, Patrick Wanjohi and Bernard Maingi. Agriculture is roughly 23% of Kenya's GDP and its biggest employer, yet volatile fertilizer prices, stock-outs and substandard products made inputs unreliable — iProcure's bet was that connecting dealers directly to makers would stabilize price and quality.
What happened
By 2022 the network had grown 16x in four years with revenue roughly doubling annually. In August 2022 it raised a $10.2M Series B led by I&P (with Novastar, Ceniarth and BII), bringing total funding to $17.2M, and planned to double its distribution hubs to 20, enter Tanzania and add buy-now-pay-later credit for dealers. Co-founder Carcoforo had already moved out of the CEO seat to ex-Novastar partner Niraj Varia.
How it ended up
After failing to close another round as African agtech funding fell 36% to $84.6M in 2023 and Kenyan government fertilizer subsidies squeezed its margins, iProcure's board placed it under administration in late April 2024. KPMG was appointed administrator; Kenyan Wallstreet reported in March 2025 that the company was still under administration, with KPMG marketing its assets (a one-time base of 5,000 agro-dealers, vehicles and its ERP point-of-sale system).
Background
iProcure was founded in Nairobi around 2014 to fix Kenya's agricultural input supply chain: volatile fertilizer prices, stock-outs and substandard products that reached smallholder farmers through informal dealers. Agriculture is roughly 23% of Kenya's GDP, and the company's bet was that connecting agro-dealers directly to certified manufacturers — with a mobile ERP for ordering, inventory and sales — would make quality seeds and fertilizer cheaper and more reliable.
The model scaled on venture money. By 2022 iProcure connected 5,000 agro-dealers, had grown revenue 16x in four years with annual doubling, and served dealers trusted by an estimated million-plus farmers. In August 2022 it raised a $10.2M Series B led by I&P with Novastar Ventures, Ceniarth and British International Investment, bringing total funding to about $17M, and planned to double hubs to 20, enter Tanzania and offer buy-now-pay-later credit to dealers.
The expansion plan never got the next round it needed. African agtech funding fell 36% to $84.6M in 2023, Kenyan government fertilizer subsidies squeezed the commercial case for input distribution, and iProcure could not close a new raise. Its board placed it under administration in late April 2024; KPMG took over, and by March 2025 the company was still under administration, its assets — a one-time network of 5,000 agro-dealers, vehicles and its ERP system — being marketed to buyers.
What has to be true
- iProcure's model aggregated demand and digitized dealers, but its warehouses, credit lines and last-mile logistics needed constant capital, leaving it dependent on the venture market.
- The company doubled revenue for years and still could not reach the point where investors would fund it through a downturn — growth without proven unit economics was not enough when funding froze.
- African agtech funding falling 36% in 2023 plus government fertilizer subsidies changing the input market removed both its growth capital and its pricing edge at once.
- Novastar called the failure painful because the thesis — quality inputs at lower cost for smallholders — was sound; sound demand did not make the model resilient.
What can be applied
A distribution network funded to grow on venture capital stays a hostage of the fundraising market: when the taps close, even a business serving a million farmers cannot outrun an unproven unit model.
Aftermath
As of 24 March 2025, iProcure remained under administration in Kenya with KPMG's Makenzi Muthusi as administrator. The administrator issued expressions of interest in July 2024 for the startup's assets, including a one-time customer base of 5,000 agri-product retailers, motor vehicles and an ERP-based point-of-sale system. Investors including Novastar, I&P, BII and Ceniarth had put in more than $17M across five rounds; Kenyan Wallstreet attributed the failure to cash-flow constraints and a business model that could not survive the venture funding drought that began in 2023.
Sources
- Kenyan agtech iProcure raises $10.2M to grow its input supply network
- Kenya's iProcure, used by a million farmers, is the latest African funding crunch casualty
- Former Employee Withdraws Case Against iProcure Amid Insolvency Dispute
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