Kenyan agri-finance startup, Investa Farm, is using stablecoin-powered lending backed by real farm produce to provide access to affordable and reliable credit for smallholder farmers.
Founded in 2023, Investa Farm has developed a financing platform that connects global capital to local farming through a structured system of stablecoin loans, digitised farm collateral and voucher-based input distribution.
The startup says the model is designed to ensure that capital is productive, traceable, and aligned with actual agricultural output, rather than diverted to household emergencies or lost to currency volatility.
“Loans are funded and settled using stablecoins to ensure price stability, fast settlement, and cross-border efficiency,” Moses Liech, Investa Farm’s CEO, told Disrupt Africa. “Farm output and inventory are digitised and used as real-world collateral. Farmers receive input vouchers redeemable at approved agro-dealers, preventing diversion of funds. Alternative agricultural data is used to underwrite farmers without formal credit histories.”
Addressing Structural Barriers in Agricultural Finance
Across Africa, smallholder farmers remain largely excluded from formal financial systems. Most lack land titles, have no formal credit histories, and face high interest rates from informal lenders. Cash-based loans are often misused due to pressing household needs, undermining farm productivity and increasing default risk.
According to Investa Farm, its model attempts to address these structural barriers by shifting the basis of credit from land ownership to production itself. Instead of lending cash directly, the company issues vouchers that can only be redeemed for farm inputs such as seeds, fertiliser and agro-chemicals from vetted suppliers. This ensures that borrowed capital is applied directly to agricultural activity.
By digitising farm output and inventory, the platform creates a form of real-world collateral tied to production cycles, enabling lenders to assess and manage risk more accurately.
What You Need to Know
While cryptocurrency remains controversial in many African markets, Investa Farm deliberately uses stablecoins rather than volatile digital assets. For the startup, stablecoins function primarily as financial infrastructure, enabling fast settlement, reducing currency risk, and allowing international capital providers to fund African agriculture without friction from banking delays or foreign exchange volatility.
Despite being only two years old, the startup revealed it has already served more than 10,000 farmers and processed loans totalling US$4.8 million. It has raised some pre-seed funding and reports strong repeat usage among its farmer base.
“These figures demonstrate strong demand, repeat usage, and operational capacity to manage agricultural credit at scale,” said Liech.
The company generates revenue through a 15 per cent transaction fee on loan value. According to Liech, profits are currently reinvested into product development, operations and market expansion rather than distributed.
Understanding Investa Farm’s Strategy
Investa Farm currently operates in Kenya and is planning expansion into other East African markets. However, growth is being pursued cautiously.
“Expansion is phased, and dependent on regulatory readiness; agro-dealer network availability; and capital supply stability,” Liech explained.
This reflects the regulatory complexity surrounding both agricultural finance and digital assets across Africa, where policies vary widely between countries and remain in flux.
By anchoring finance to production rather than land ownership, and by using digital infrastructure to improve transparency and accountability, experts say Investa Farm represents a shift in how agricultural lending can be structured in emerging markets.
Industry leaders say its model suggests that technology can help align the interests of farmers, lenders and food systems. If it scales successfully, produce-backed stablecoin finance could become a blueprint for addressing the long-standing credit gap facing Africa’s smallholder farmers.
Talking Points
It is notable that Investa Farm is using stablecoins as settlement infrastructure rather than speculative assets, addressing two major barriers in agricultural finance: currency volatility and slow, expensive cross-border payments.
This design choice alone positions Investa Farm as a practical financing solution for smallholder farmers who operate on thin margins and cannot absorb exchange rate shocks or delays in accessing inputs.
At Techparley, we see how models like this can help rewire agricultural finance away from cash-based, high-risk lending towards systems that are more transparent, traceable, and aligned with real production.
The use of produce-backed collateral and voucher-based input financing also reduces misuse of funds and lowers default risk, which is a longstanding challenge in smallholder lending across Africa.
However, there is still room to deepen its impact. Long-term success will depend on farmer education, trust in digital financial tools, regulatory clarity around stablecoins, and the strength of local agro-dealer and data networks.
With the right ecosystem support, the platform has the potential to become a meaningful driver of financial inclusion and productivity for Africa’s smallholder farmers.
——————-
Bookmark Techparley.com for the most insightful technology news from the African continent.
Follow us on Twitter @Techparleynews, on Facebook at Techparley Africa, on LinkedIn at Techparley Africa, or on Instagram at Techparleynews.
