Nigeria-based agri-tech startup Releaf, has raised a pre-Series A bridge capital of $3.3 million in a new funding round led by Samurai Incubate Africa, which re-invested after leading the startup's earlier seed round of $4.2 million in 2021.

Releaf was founded in 2021 to help FMCG manufacturers access high quality ingredients. The company kicked off their solution with sustainable oil palm in Nigeria, while developing technologies that enable decentralised purchasing and processing of raw crops to improve profitability and prevent post-harvest loss for a more climate-resilient future.

According to the founders, the bridge capital will help support the launch of two new technologies - Kraken II – a portable version of its award-winning palm nut de-sheller, and SITE, a geospatial mapping application that informs the most profitable positioning of food processing assets.

Other participants in this round of funding include Consonance Investment Managers. Stephen Pagliuca, chairman of Bain Capital, and Jeff Ubben, board member at the World Wildlife Fund and founder of Inclusive Capital Partners, also invested.

According to the CTO and Co-Founder of the startup, Uzoma Ayogu, Releaf has used its supply chain technology to process more than 10 million kilogrammes of palm nuts and grown its monthly revenue 7X year-on-year. The company has also secured more than $100 million in supply contracts from leading consumer goods manufacturers, including Presco, PZ Cussons, and more. The company’s valuation has tripled since its seed round.

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Uzoma also disclosed that the SITE and Kraken II were the next steps in the startup’s plan to fundamentally transform the efficiency of agricultural supply chains in Africa.

“We are excited to have partnered with an exceptional cohort of investors and collaborators to roll out these technologies. To make food supply chains profitable, we must maximise extraction yields with leading processing technology and minimise logistics costs by bringing processing capacity closer to farmers,” he said. “Before Releaf, stakeholders had to choose between one or the other – large factories had great technology but were far away, leaving most farmers with rudimentary technology to process their crops. We’re now able to maximise both.”

Rena Yoneyama, managing partner at Samurai Incubate Africa, said Releaf’s success with its pilot Kraken had validated its thesis. 

“We are excited to continue supporting their ambitious vision to create efficient supply chains within Africa’s agricultural market. They have added key members to their management team and continue to impress us with their rapid commercial growth and technological development. We look forward to more of the same success as the team rolls out Kraken II and SITE,” she said.