Agriculture in Africa follows similar narratives: smallholder farmers struggling with low yields, poor access to credit, and unreliable markets, while buyers complain about inconsistent supply and quality. The continent is blessed with vast arable land, yet its food systems remain fractured, leaving both growers and consumers shortchanged. In Ghana, however, one startup is trying to rewrite this script.
Complete Farmer is combining technology, data, and on-the-ground logistics to bridge the gap between farmers and global markets. By doing so, it’s offering a glimpse of how African agriculture might finally move from survival mode to a thriving, interconnected system. In this article, we dig into the company’s journey, funding, and the bold model it believes can change the future of farming.
The Origin of Complete Farmer
Founded in 2017 by engineer-turned-entrepreneur Desmond Koney, Complete farmer grew out of Koney’s experience on his family’s pineapple farm. He saw firsthand how farmers struggled to yield enough quality produce or connect to reliable markets. “I wanted to come up with a model in which farms in Africa can be more efficient to feed global supply chains,” Koney explains. From this seed of an idea, Complete Farmer has sprouted into an all-in-one digital platform that links growers, buyers, and services – with the lofty vision of “a world that eats together by working together”. Along the way, it has raised over $10 million in equity and debt, built fulfillment centers, and enrolled tens of thousands of farmers into its system to deliver export-grade crops.
Building an Innovative Agricultural Ecosystem
What stands out about Complete Farmer is its holistic model. It doesn’t just offer a marketplace, it provides the inputs, training and finance that farmers need to meet strict quality standards. The platform’s CF Grower app guides each farmer through standardized planting and care processes, backed by data from sensors and satellite monitoring. When to plant, irrigate, or apply fertilizer, all are driven by real-time soil and weather data. Farmers are also assigned trained agents who provide on-the-ground support, especially for those without smartphones. This hybrid model merges tech and human touch: Over 200 agents regularly visit farms, ensure quality inputs are used, and relay feedback to the platform. In effect, Complete Farmer treats the farm like a factory production line, bringing discipline, traceability and accountability to plots that were once managed haphazardly.
The other side of the platform is CF Buyer, an online marketplace for bulk buyers (like food processors and FMCG companies). Buyers can browse and purchase certified crops directly from the platform’s network of growers. The system matches orders to the right farms and offers guidance on fair pricing with floors, ceilings, and negotiation tools. By guaranteeing purchase agreements in advance, it shields farmers from spot-market volatility. Indeed, Complete Farmer touts that its farmers, growing niche cash crops (cassava, chili pepper, soybeans, etc.), earn about 20–25% more than national averages on crops like soybeans. In practice, roughly 80% of its produce is destined for export markets, ensuring steady demand and premium prices – a lifeline for many smallholder. “We stay awy from crops that have government meddling in the value chain like cocoa,” notes Koney. Instead Complete Farmer zeroes in on high-margin fruits, grains, and vegetables where it can carve efficient, independent value chains.
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Complete Farmer’s Funding Journey
To finance its growth, CF raised seed funding in 2022 from a host of investors and accelerators, among them Ingressive Capital, EchoVC, Launch Africa, Samurai Incubate, Kepple Ventures, and Norrsken Accelerator. A more transformative round came in 2023, when CF closed a $10.4 million pre-Series A (a mix of $7M equity and $3.4M debt) co-led by the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and Alitheia Capital’s UMunthu II Fund. That financing was earmarked to build infrastructure: CF opened seven fulfillment centers across Ghana and neighboring Togo for post-harvest handling, packaging and quality control. By late 2025, the company has already secured additional grants and debt: a €2.2M (~$2.5M) EU-funded AgriFI grant for innovation and a $5M debt facility from Swiss impact investor Symbioticst. These investments support CF’s next chapter: a planned $22M Series A round (closing mid-2025) to expand deeper into West Africa. “This funding marks a transformative moment,” Koney says of the Symbiotics deal, helping build “the most efficient agricultural supply chains in Africa” and equip farmers with the “tools, knowledge, and market access they need”.
Complete Farmer’s Unique Proposition
What stands out about Complete Farmer is its holistic model. It doesn’t just offer a marketplace, it provides the inputs, training and finance that farmers need to meet strict quality standards. The CF Grower app incorporates precision agriculture protocols: using AI and satellite imagery (powered by partners like EOSDA) to flag pests or moisture deficits. Sensors in the field monitor soil nutrients and water use so that fertilizer and irrigation can be applied exactly when needed, boosting yields and conserving
The platform even extends into fintech: in late 2024 CF launched CF Transact, a mobile wallet for farmers. Through CF Transact, growers can save in digital accounts, receive crop payments, and access micro-loans for inputs. “CF Transact gives them access to credit, and they have a store of value they can save on top,” explains CCO Teddy Appah-Dank. By integrating finance, CF reduces farmers’ dependence on risky informal credit. Meanwhile its CF Storefront service enables farmers to order seeds, fertilizer or equipment via simple SMS/USSD menus, a key feature in regions with low smartphone penetration. Altogether, Complete Farmer’s suite – Grower, Buyer, Transact and Storefront – creates an ecosystem that many African farmers have long lacked: from planting advice all the way to being paid. One investor cheerfully notes that CF serves as a “one-stop resource”, connecting farmers and buyers with quality inputs and markets that meet export specifications.
Challenges on the Horizon
Despite its successes, Complete Farmer faces an uphill battle. Agriculture in Africa is notoriously unpredictable. Seasonal commodity swings and global events can hurt business: for example, a 2022 glut in soybeans (linked to global conflict) briefly pushed farmgate prices below break-even, challenging CF’s ability to offer competitive buying rates. Building infrastructure is also capital-intensive, so CF’s growth is slower and more resource-hungry than a purely digital startup. CEO Appah-Dankyi notes that expansion must be “gradual” because each new region requires setting up fulfillment centers, training local agents, and dealing with crop cycles and government policies. In one recent challenge, CF found that other local buyers were trying to poach its trained farmers. The response: deepen farmer loyalty through bundled services. “It is very evident that our pricing is better, and farmers gain more if they sell to us,” says Appah-Danky CF’s model ties farmers in with inputs, credit, insurance and literacy training – raising the “switching cost” for a farmer who might otherwise chase a quick cash sale.
User adoption is another hurdle. Over 40,000 farmers have registered on the platform, but only about 12,000 are active in any given season. CF leverages the seasonal nature of farming and the personal touch of its agents to mitigate this: each season an agent may focus on a smaller cohort of farmers, helping them through planting and harvest.
Growing Beyond Ghana
While Ghana remains its home base, Complete Farmer has eyes on the broader region. By 2025 it has already established a presence in Togo and is validating models in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. Plans call for rolling out its protocols and infrastructure to at least a half-million farmers by 202. Localization is a key part of this expansion strategy: CF is developing AI-driven tools to translate its technical farming protocols into local languages, so that new farmers can easily understand them. Partnership-building is also crucial. CF works closely with Ghana’s Ministry of Agriculture and agricultural colleges to train its agents, and it aims to forge alliances with input suppliers, governments, and even international buyers who want reliable sourcing from Africa.
