Ghana's Vitara raises €1.8M to digitise shea supply chain for women farmers
What's the deal? Ghanaian agritech VitaraDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, formerly Sommalife, has raised €1.8 million (about $2 million) in early-stage equity. The round was led by the European Union-funded AgriFI facility, with impact investor AcumenDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and angel investors.
Why it matters: The deal is the first direct equity investment through the AgriFI Ghana Country Window, a €10 million mechanism managed by EDFI Management CompanyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. It targets smallholder inclusiveness across the country's five northern regions.
What's the endgame? Vitara will use the capital to expand TreeSyt, a platform that digitises farmer profiling, commodity buying, and tree monitoring. It tracks produce from farm to buyer, generating the supply-chain data international manufacturers increasingly demand.
The company aggregates shea directly from farming communities to cut out intermediaries and pass more of the final price to producers. It reports that fair pricing and payment terms have lifted farmer incomes by 20%.
By the numbers: Vitara says 91% of farmers in its network are women, and it worked with about 47,000 women farmers last season. As of late 2025, 150,000 farmers were registered on TreeSyt, with 40,000 actively sourcing. A partnership with MTN GhanaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → added mobile money for digital payments in low-connectivity areas.
Why now? Ghana is pushing its shea trade from raw exports toward domestic processing, launching a shea-processing hub in Wa in January and discussing restrictions on raw-nut exports. The global shea market is projected to exceed $3 billion by 2030, and Ghana produces between 130,000 and 150,000 metric tonnes of shea nuts annually.
Chris Maranga, Africa director at Acumen, said the women who harvest and process shea had been "shut out of reliable markets," and that Vitara was "opening the door to higher, more stable incomes." Acumen had already backed Vitara in a pre-Series A round earlier in 2026.
What could go wrong? The payoff depends on whether the capital lifts producer incomes and builds viable local value addition — both harder tests than deploying traceability software.
The signal: At roughly €1.8 million, this is a modest early-stage round — but by pairing EU-backed development finance with impact capital, it signals growing investor appetite for traceable, women-led agricultural supply chains in West Africa.
Read more: launchbaseafrica.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
