Nairobi analytics firm Gro raises Sh9.2bn in venture funding

Gro Intelligence, a Nairobi-based privately funded commodity data and analysis service, has raised $85 million (Sh9.2 billion) from global venture capital backers for global expansion.

Founded in 2004 in Kenya and with offices in New York, Gro utilises artificial intelligence to model complex data of the inter-relationships between food, climate, trade, agriculture, and macroeconomic conditions.

The firm says the data collected provides decision-making tools, solutions, and analytics to the food, agriculture, and climate economies.

According to Gro, the funding will be utilised to accelerate the growth and global adoption of the Gro Platform. In addition, it will be used to enhance the platform’s existing capabilities in providing localised insights on food, agriculture, and climate risk.

“Food security and climate risk represent existential global-sized opportunities for our AI-powered decisions and insights platform. We see a tremendous need for the market knowledge provided by the Gro Platform," said Sara Menker, founder, and CEO of Gro Intelligence in a statement.

"Our customers have come to rely on Gro as a unique source of actionable data-driven insights about our food supply and models to measure and manage associated climate change risk to physical and financial assets across the globe. We are absolutely delighted to welcome our new investors and continue to be grateful to our existing investors for their support.”

The capital in the latest round of was provided by among others Intel Capital, Africa Internet Ventures, DCVC and GGV Capital.

Last year in April, a report compiled by Gro Intelligence warned that a desert-locust plague in the Horn of Africa had reached critical proportions, projecting that .

Gro says it’s customer segments range from governments to financial institutions, agricultural input companies, retailers, food and beverage companies, and various other industry participants.