AFRICA: Kenyan start-up Amini raises $2m for its climate technologies

With $2 million recently secured from several investment firms, Nairobi, Kenya-based technology start-up Amini is going to war against the lack of climate data that is holding back sustainable development on the African continent.

Launching in December 2022, Kenyan climate solutions start-up Amini has just secured $2 million to deploy a “satellite constellation” essential to agricultural development and natural disaster prevention in Africa. The pre-seed funding was secured through a round led by venture capital firm Pale Blue Dot.

Investors include the RaliCap fund and the Emurgo Kepple Ventures joint venture. Amini’s technology, which “will provide information on drought, floods, soils and crop health”, will be developed in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) based in Paris, France, and the Earth Observation Space Program led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States of America.

“If you look at the environmental data in Africa today, it is either non-existent or difficult to access. And with climate change expected to hit the continent the hardest, there is a lack of information for farmers, for example, to understand what is going on. The problem is deeper than most realise,” laments Kate Kallot, Amini’s CEO.

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The reason the start-up is focusing on small farmers at the moment is that its solutions should tell them when to plough, harvest or water. Satellite data can be used to monitor crop yields, identify areas with water shortages or fertiliser deficiencies, and also to anticipate the spread of certain crop and livestock diseases, according to a study by the Canadian Space Agency.