A Map of Nigeria’s Fastest Growing Agri-Tech Startups 

Home to more than 200 million people, Nigeria plays a vital role in the African food system. For over a decade, local innovators have pushed to improve how food moves from farms to homes in the country. What started as small fixes to connect farmers and reduce losses is beginning to grow at scale. 

As the impact deepens, the reach of these startups has extended across value chains not only in Nigeria but also in other African countries where similar needs exist. 

Regional Spread of Fast Growing Agritech Startups in Nigeria 

When it comes to agritech growth in Nigeria, participation varies across the six geopolitical zones. However, each zone contributes to the country’s progress in its own way.

South West 

1. Vendease 

• Focus Areas: Food procurement, inventory & logistics
• Founded: 2020
• Headquarter: Lagos
• Stage: Series A (US $30 M equity + US $10 M debt) in Sep 2022
• Reach: Serves over 3,000 food businesses; has moved 400,000 MT of food; cuts procurement costs for users, reduces waste and delivery time. 

Vendease is a digital platform that links food vendors to farms and manufacturers. It removes procurement delays and helps vendors access fresh supplies at better prices. The company also works with African farmers by offering credit—mostly in the form of input financing and early payments for harvests.

In addition to their offerings, vendors enjoy quick restocks within a day, and at the same time, they help farmers secure markets and grow their income.

2. Crop2Cash

• Focus Areas: Financial and digital solutions to smallholder farmers
• Founded: 2018
• Headquarter: Ibadan, active in 13+ states
• Stage: Seed 
• Reach: Over 500,000 farmers onboarded.

Crop2Cash provides a digital platform that allows farmers to access finance and buy verified inputs directly. It also connects them with agro-processors and suppliers through a structured digital system. Through this model, Crop2Cash supports a more structured agricultural sector, one that rewards producers and contributes to national growth.

To extend their reach, they pioneered Nigeria’s first USSD-powered agricultural hotline. This allows farmers, even in remote villages without smartphones or stable internet to access advisory support and financing tools using a simple code on any basic phone.

3. Winich Farm 

• Focus Areas: Input financing, market access, and smart advisory for farmers
• Founded: 2020
• Headquarter: Ikoyi Lagos
• Stage: pre-Series A | Seed 
• Reach: Serving thousands of rural smallholders

Winichfarms serves as an inventory backbone for small and mid-sized factories. The platform directly connects both small food producers and off-takers by making sure they always have access to raw materials when needed.

To do this, Winichfarms works closely with farmers across different regions. It buys farm produce in bulk, stores it, then supplies factories based on demand. This system removes the guesswork from sourcing and prevents the common issue of raw material shortages that often disrupt factory operations.

5. Tradebuza 

• Focus Area: Digital platform for contract farming and commodity trade
• Founded: 2017
• Headquarter: Lagos
• Stage: Seed
• Reach: Manages thousands of smallholder outgrowers through agribusiness clients

TradeBuza uses technology to simplify how companies manage outgrower schemes and source agricultural commodities. Their platform helps agribusinesses keep better track of the farmers they work with and the produce they receive.

Instead of relying on paper records or scattered systems, TradeBuza gives businesses a single digital space to monitor activities, payments, and deliveries. This improves how quickly they respond to issues and makes it easier to spot delays or gaps in supply.

6. Soilless Farm Lab

• Focus Area: Hydroponics and precision greenhouse agriculture
• Founded: 2019
• Headquarter: Abeokuta
• Stage: Impact-backed growth phase
• Reach: Has trained 45,000+ youths and runs greenhouse hubs across Ogun State and many states within the country. 

Soilless Farm Lab uses hydroponics and AI-driven irrigation within greenhouse systems to grow vegetables regardless of season. In partnership with Mastercard foundation, soilless farm lab operates training hubs that equip young people with skills for greenhouse farming and supports entrepreneurs in launching ventures.

The program, dubbed the Enterprise for Youths in Agriculture, has equipped over 45,000+ youths on a 3-month cohorts basis. Soilless Farm Lab equips youth with practical skills and backs new agribusinesses looking to break beyond traditional farming limits.

North Central 

7. Verdant Agritech

• Focus Area: Mobile-based advisory, market info, and data-driven value-chain integration
• Founded: 2014
• Headquarter: Abuja
• Stage: Unfunded/Seed (as at the time of filing this report)
• Reach: Works with thousands of smallholder farmers across Nigeria (e.g. about 8,000 in Kano), and partners with NGOs, governments, and financial institutions

This platform started by offering SMS- and voice-based advisory services, weather updates, crop guides, and financial insight, built to work on basic phones. Starting out, Verdant’s goal was to close the information gap for rural farmers and help them make better decisions in real time.

Over time, the company expanded its reach gathering data from various participants within the agricultural value chain.

8. Agriarche 

• Focus Area: Digital marketplace connecting smallholder farmers and aggregators to buyers
• Founded: 2022
• Headquarter: Abuja
• Stage: Seed / impact-backed
• Reach: 50,000+ Farmers reached

Agriarche offers Kasuwa, a platform built to make agricultural trade more transparent and direct. This solution links farms and aggregators to buyers, capturing trading histories that improve pricing and enable access to credit. Seed funding and support from partners helped it scale in underserved regions.

Also, the company work to reduces middlemen and at the same time improve market visibility and creates more stable income paths for rural producers.

9. Extension Africa

• Focus Areas: Digital agricultural extension services, farm input supply, market linkage, agent empowerment
• Founded: 2021
• Headquarters: Gwarinpa, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
• Stage: Award-winning startup, revenue details undisclosed
• Reach: Serves over 363,000 farmers and 2,462 extension agents across 12 Nigerian states.

Extension Africa is a data-driven agritech platform pioneering the transformation of extension services for African farmers. The company builds large networks of trained extension agents who offer tailored agricultural advice, connect smallholder farmers to inputs and global markets.

Extension Africa also manage value chain logistics using proprietary digital tools such as FarmEX and e-wallet solutions. The firm recently secured national and pan-African honors by achieving first in Nigeria and third overall at the 2024 AYuTe Africa NextGen innovation competition.

South East 

10. ColdHubs 

• Focus Area: Solar-powered cold storage for perishable food
• Founded: 2015
• Headquarter: Owerri
• Stage: Growth / impact-backed
• Reach: 58 hubs in 22 Nigerian states with over 11,000 users in 2024

ColdHubs builds walk-in cold rooms powered by solar energy. These cold rooms are placed in markets and farming communities to help farmers and vendors store perishable food safely. Without proper storage, fresh produce often goes bad within hours after harvest. This leads to waste and income loss, especially for smallholder farmers who can’t afford refrigeration.

The company solves this by letting users store fruits, vegetables, and dairy for several days—right where they sell or harvest. Their pay-as-you-store model means farmers don’t need to buy the cold rooms but only pay for the space and time they use. As at last year—2024, ColdHubs had deployed 58 units across 22 states

South South

11. Releaf

• Focus Area: Palm nut processing technology and supply chain financing
• Founded: 2017
• Headquarter: Uyo
• Stage: Pre-Series A / Seed + grant-backed
• Reach: Sources from 2,000+ smallholder farmers; processes ~500 tonnes of palm nuts weekly; serves FMCG manufacturers across Nigeria.

Releaf builds tools that make it easier to process palm nuts close to where they are grown. Instead of moving raw palm produce over long distances to large factories, Releaf places small processing units near farming communities. This saves time and reduces spoilage.

One of its core innovations is a de-shelling machine that breaks palm nuts more efficiently than traditional methods. Releaf also uses a mapping tool to locate farms and track harvest patterns, which helps manufacturers plan better and reduces supply chain gaps.

Are you are looking for answers on why promising agritech ventures struggle to scale? Find out here.

Final Thoughts 

The journey to reshape Nigeria’s food systems is far from over. In fact, it’s only just starting. Slowly but steadily, homegrown efforts by these agritech companies in Nigeria are gaining ground and proving that the future of food can be built locally.