The GSMA AgriTech Programme is proud to announce the launch of the “AgriTech Accelerator, Lessons from Scaling Digital Agriculture Services Report.” This comprehensive publication captures two years of learning, experimentation, and impact from the GSMA AgriTech Accelerator, a programme funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and delivered in partnership with GIZ.
As the world faces mounting challenges around food security, climate change, and rural livelihoods, digital agriculture has never been more important. The Accelerator supported the growth of nine innovative, revenue-generating digital agriculture solutions across Africa and Asia to scale – improving smallholder farmer livelihoods, promoting financial inclusion and building climate resilience.
The cohort of agritechs in the Accelerator offered services and solutions including digital advisory, agri digital financial services (DFS), smart farming, digital procurement and market linkages.
Why This Report Matters
The report is a practical guide for donors, investors, agritechs, and ecosystem partners who want to drive sustainable impact in agriculture through digital innovation. It distils the real-world experiences of the Accelerator cohort, offering actionable recommendations and data-driven insights for the sector.
Five Key Lessons for Scaling Digital Agriculture
1. User-Centric Product Design is Essential
Agritechs that invested in user experience (UX) research and design achieved better product-market fit and higher adoption. Simplicity, accessibility (including local languages and offline functionality), and iterative development based on real farmer feedback were critical.
Many cohort members overloaded their services with features offering end-to-end solutions, but this often-overwhelmed users—especially those with low digital literacy. Focusing on core, high-value features helped reduce complexity and improve usability. FarmSpeak learned this through experience, having initially built a feature-rich app with a detailed registration process to collect farmer data. However, after user feedback revealed that the app was too complex, especially for users with limited digital skills, the team simplified the design to prioritise core functionality and ease of use.
Solutions that acted as “friendly helpers” and proactively guided users saw the improved user engagement and adoption.
2. Access to Capital is the Main Barrier to Scale
Most agritechs struggled to secure the funding needed for growth, often underestimating the preparation required for investor engagement. Those who succeeded in raising funds, built strong financial models to showcase commercial viability, tailored their pitches to investor priorities, cultivated robust networks and clearly articulated their value proposition.
Across the accelerator cohort, 6 agritechs cumulatively raised over USD $1,379,000 million, which includes venture capital, private equity, debt and grants.
Investment readiness must be treated as a core business function by founders, not an afterthought.
3. Sustainable Business and Revenue Models Require Creativity
Generating direct revenue from smallholder farmers is challenging due to challenges in digital literacy, internet access, ability to pay and perception of the services
Successful agritechs blended business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), and donor-funded models, often using freemium or tiered pricing, and sought to diversify income streams. Winich Farms in Nigeria generated revenue by taking commissions from sales made to offtakers on its digital platform. It also planned to earn commissions on value-added services such as loans and digital payments.
Agent-led models, like the one used by OKO, were effective for onboarding and trust-building in low-literacy contexts. Though costly, OKO improved efficiency through commission-based incentives and enhanced monitoring tools.
4. Strategic Partnerships Accelerate Growth
No agritech scales alone. Partnerships with mobile network operators, banks, NGOs, and other ecosystem players enabled access to new markets, expanded service offerings, and built credibility. This is key to unlocking new revenue and scaling impact.
In Ghana, TDX partnered with MEDA, an NGO focused on improving women smallholder farmers livelihoods, to onboard 40,000 farmers in Northern Ghana giving them access to market linkages for their crops. Greenovator in Cambodia collaborated with Smart Axiata to run targeted SMS campaigns for target users across the country that doubled app downloads.
The most successful collaborations were built on clear mutual value and often facilitated by warm introductions from trusted networks.
5. Impact on Smallholder Farmers is Real and Measurable
The Accelerator focused on five key areas of impact: access to services, climate resilience, financial inclusion, productivity and income and livelihoods, as this provides a holistic view on how digital agriculture services impact and intersect with farmers’ lives, providing value and creating impact for them.
The Accelerator’s cohort reached over 330,000 new farmers, with 89% reporting improved access to digital agricultural services and over 100,000 women benefiting directly.
- Digital advisory services improved farmers knowledge, climate resilience, and productivity
- Market linkage services reduced post-harvest losses and increased farmers’ incomes
Agri digital financial services (including payments, insurance, and loans) enhanced financial inclusion – usage and adoption and led to greater food security for farmers.
A Roadmap for Digital Agriculture
The GSMA AgriTech Accelerator, Lessons from Scaling Digital Agriculture Services Report is more than a retrospective—it provides a practical guide for anyone working to scale digital agriculture. The learnings and data show that success comes from deep user understanding, investment readiness, flexible business models, strategic partnerships, and a need to understand the impact on target users – smallholder farmers. As the sector faces growing challenges from climate change and food insecurity, these lessons will help guide the next generation of agritechs, donors, and investors.
Explore the full report to dive deeper into the stories, data, and recommendations that can help shape a more resilient, inclusive, and productive food system for all.
Read the full report: https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-for-development/gsma_resources/agritech-accelerator-lessons-from-scaling-digital-agriculture-services/
Learn more about GSMA AgriTech: https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-for-development/agritech/
The GSMA AgriTech Accelerator is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the GSMA and its members.
