EZ Farming is the latest agricultural technology startup to benefit from a $150,000 seed funding from 500 Startups, a San Francisco-based accelerator after a four-month programme. EZ Farming is a marketplace that enables farmers to fund their businesses through the provision of micro-loans and ease of access to produce buyers across the world.

STARTUP TERMS
Successful startups that participate in the accelerator must exchange a 6% equity for funding, mentorship and hands-on training. Plus, they also charge a $37.5k fee for participating in the 500 Seed Programme. However, the fun side of this funding is that all startups and entrepreneurs from everywhere can apply.

EZ’s success in acquiring this investment came as a result of its first-place finish in a competition hosted by Georgetown African Business Conference earlier in the year.

ABOUT 500 STARTUPS
500 Startups is a global venture capital firm with a network of startup programmes headquartered in Silicon Valley with over $454 million in committed capital across 4 main funds and 15 thematic funds. It is known as the most renowned accelerator programmes in the world and has increasingly opened to African startups in recent years, with Kenya’s CardPlanet – now PayKind – and Egypt’s ElWafeyat making it into Batch 11, and South Africa’s SweepSouth and Ghana’s Kudobuzz making it into Batch 14.

Nigerian startups have been popular in recent programmes, with the likes of Printivo, Aella Credit, Talentbase and Podozi receiving the backing of 500 Startups.

ABOUT EZ FARMING
EZ Farming is a marketplace that connects smallholder farmers to microlenders and produces buyers globally to empower them to scale small farms into commercial sizes and equip with the next generation of farmers. Since launching, EZ Farming has worked with more than 600 microlenders to invest over $600 thousand in more than 120 verified and trusted farmers who are scaling fast to become commercial farmers.

EZ Farming is supported by leading agricultural research institutions, world-renowned agricultural experts and leading investors including 500 Startups in San Francisco, Young African Professionals in Washington DC, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, Impacthub Lagos and Dr Howarth Bouis, the 2016 World Food Prize Winner.

SOURCE: https://nairametrics.com/2019/08/27/nigerian-agric-tech-startup-ez-farming-clinches-150000-seed-funding/