Apollo Agriculture raises $2.5 million in agriculture securitization deal backed by IDH Farmfit Fund. Securitization has reached African agriculture. Nairobi-based Apollo Agriculture sold a bundle of pooled loans it has made to smallholder farmers to raise capital for additional lending. The buyer, IDH Farmfit Fund, isa Netherlands-based blended finance fund for smallholder farmers. The sale of nearly 24,000 smallholder farmer loans, many to first-time borrowers and women, via Kaleidofin's credit platform Ki, mobilized 276 million Kenyan shillings ($2.5 million) for Apollo. "The local currency advantage directly translates to a lower cost of capital and lower cost of financing for our farmers," Apollo's Eli Pollak told ImpactAlpha. UK-funded FSD Africa helped with regulatory structuring. The deal follows IDH's $5.3 million investment in India-based Kaleidofin last year to strengthen its credit scoring capabilities. Local currency. Pollaksays one of Apollo's key challenges has been accessing local currency financing to lend to farmers. When having to borrow in dollars or euros, Apollo had to hedge its local currency risk, leading to higher costs of capital for farmers. The securitization structure helped leverage Apollo's receivables and the historical performance of its farmer-borrowers to bring in local-currency financing. The securitization deal, which received an investment grade rating of BBB- from African credit rating agency Agusto, is the first of a multi-year series Apollo expects to generate 2.4 billion Kenyan shillings and expand financing to more than 130,000 farmers. Securitized impact. Impact securitization deals in Africa have been executed in clean energy and small business finance. Last year, Kenya based pay-as-you-go solar company Sun King raised $156 million in its second securitization deal. The capital was earmarked to finance nearly 1.4 million solar products and smartphones across Kenya. Sun King's first such deal in 2023 raised $130 million (see, "Sun King raises $130 million through securitization of off-grid solar payments"). In 2020, NSIA Banque Côte d'Ivoire issued the first securitization of small business loans by a commercial bank in the eight-country West African Monetary Union block. The International Finance Corp.anchored the transaction, which raised 40 billion West African francs (then $67.5 million) to lend to more small businesses.

Kenya's first agri securitisation closes at KES 276 million. Kaleidofin and Apollo Agriculture have raised KES 276 million backed by loans to 23,839 smallholder farmers, with the IDH Farmfit Fund as anchor investor 7th May 2026 An approximately $2.1 million bond backed by loans to 23,839 smallholder farmers has closed in Kenya, marking the country's first private-sector securitisation in the agricultural finance sector. Fintech infrastructure company Kaleidofin structured the deal alongside agri-finance lender Apollo Agriculture, with the IDH Farmfit Fund, a blended finance impact fund managed by IDH Investment Management, as anchor investor. The KES 276 million issue securitises a pool of receivables valued at KES 370 million originated by Apollo from a portfolio of farmer credit. Of the 23,839 borrowers covered by the pool, 51% are women and approximately 22% are first-time borrowers, according to the parties. Agusto rated the issue investment grade at BBB-. Discover more Cell Phones How the structure works. The transaction was structured on Kaleidofin's ki platform, a debt capital markets infrastructure layer that pools small agricultural loans into investable assets for institutional investors. The platform's ki score applies a machine-learning risk model trained on loan transaction data, credit bureau records and alternative data sources to segment portfolios for different risk appetites. Apollo Agriculture, a Y Combinator-backed lender headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, originated the underlying loans. The company assesses creditworthiness for borrowers without formal credit history using satellite imagery of farm plots, machine-learning yield models and mobile data collection, in lieu of the collateral or credit history that traditional lenders demand. "This transaction demonstrates how innovative financial structures can unlock capital for smallholder farmers at scale," said Roel Messie, chief executive of IDH Investment Management. Local currency, recycled capital. For Apollo, the deal converts illiquid receivables into immediate working capital, allowing the lender to extend further loans to farmers without expanding the size of its balance sheet. The funding is in Kenyan shillings rather than dollars, which insulates farmers from exchange-rate volatility on their repayment schedules. "By converting receivables into working capital, we are able to lower our cost of funds and expand access to affordable, local currency financing for farmers," said Eli Pollak, chief executive of Apollo Agriculture. Discover more Cell Phones Public-development backing. The deal was supported by FSD Africa, the UK-funded specialist development agency, which advised on legal and regulatory structuring, investor engagement and market development. The UK's MOBILIST programme contributed input on tax and structuring. The transaction was designed as a blueprint for similar structures in other emerging markets, the parties said. The closing is the first step in a multi-year securitisation programme that they expect to mobilise approximately KES 2.37 billion and reach more than 130,000 smallholder farmers over time. Kaleidofin co-founder and chief executive Sucharita Mukherjee said the platform was designed to "function as scalable market infrastructure for traditionally excluded customer segments such as smallholder farmers, women entrepreneurs, clean energy and small business." Oluniyi D. Ajao is an Internet Entrepreneur and Tech Enthusiast. Follow him on X (fka Twitter) @niyyie for more tech updates. Discover more Company News Mobile Phones Technology News