Best Food and Agriculture Tech Companies in South Africa
The 191 best Food and Agriculture Tech companies in South Africa in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Aerobotics.
When you're trying to find the best Food and Agriculture Tech companies in South Africa, the signal-to-noise problem is real. This directory cuts through it: 191 tracked companies, $77M in total disclosed funding, ranked by equity raised and recent momentum. Aerobotics leads the field at $27M, with OrderIn close behind at $25M. Those two alone account for well over two-thirds of the capital pool. The rest of the pack, including De Novo Foodlabs ($4M) and KHULA ($3M), are working in a funding environment that's still thin but moving. Global Food and Agriculture Tech is a $4.2 trillion market growing at 4.7% CAGR, and demand signals, water conservation, plant-based category resets, functional ingredients, are pulling investment toward operators who solve real production and distribution problems.
South Africa's agri-tech moment is, I'd argue, genuinely underrated right now. Mobile is a tell: across 504 food and agri apps globally, median install growth is running at roughly 20% year-on-year, and that behavioral shift is exactly what firms like SwiftVee and Nile are positioned to catch. So where does the next $27M raise come from? Active backers like Naspers, LaunchLab and the Black Founders Fund are still circling, and the sector's top themes, precision farming, supply-chain digitization, alternative proteins, give founders real problems worth funding. No unicorns yet, but the infrastructure is being built.
- ResearchAndMarkets.com
Our analysis of 414 Food and Agriculture Tech companies
$46.7b in tracked funding; 86% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2021.
Ranked: Best Food and Agriculture Tech companies in South Africa
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aerobotics AI-powered yield forecasting for fruit growers, packers, and marketers | $27M | 66 mo ago | Series B | James Paterson Co-Founder & CEO | 2014 | WebflowYouTubeAmazon Web Services+22 | — |
| 2 | OrderIn Online food ordering platform | $25M | 52 mo ago | Deadpooled | — | 2013 | — | — |
| 3 | Inseco Insect protein company converting waste into sustainable ingredients for various industries | $5M | 49 mo ago | Acquired | — | 2017 | — | — |
| 4 | Yebo Fresh Online retailer offering multi-category grocery products | $4M | 40 mo ago | Seed | Jessica Boonstra Founder | 2018 | Node.jsRadix UITailwind CSS+8 | — |
| 5 | De Novo Foodlabs Provider of protein ingredients processing services | $4M | 22 mo ago | Seed | Leah Bessa Co-Founder & CSO | 2021 | — | 1 launch |
| 6 | KHULA Provider of an online marketplace for agriculture and food businesses | $3M | 15 mo ago | Series A | Matthew Piper Founder | 2016 | WebflowUbuntuGSAP+15 | 1 partnership |
| 7 | Nile Marketplace platform offering farm-produced food products | $2M | 12 mo ago | Series A | Rick Kleinhans Co-Founder | Chief Technology Officer | 2020 | SentryFirebaseEmotion+10 | 1 job opening · 1 launch |
| 8 | Zulzi Online delivery service provider of grocery items, medicines, etc | $2M | 73 mo ago | Seed | Vutlharhi Valoyi Founder & CEO | 2013 | Node.jsLeafletMapbox.js+11 | 1 job opening |
| 9 | SwiftVee Online auction platform for buying and selling livestock products | $2M | 6 mo ago | Series A | Russel Luck Co-Founder & CEO | 2016 | RubyTrixRuby on Rails+16 | — |
| 10 | SnapNSave App-based platform offering cashback and offers on grocery shopping | $1M | 80 mo ago | Deadpooled | — | 2015 | — | — |
| 11 | Livestock Wealth Provider of a crowd-farming company for investing in cattle | $565K | 44 mo ago | Seed | — | 2015 | WordPressMySQLPHP+30 | — |
| 12 | Q-HOP Provider of self-checkout payment solutions for in-store retail businesses | $500K | 60 mo ago | Seed | Ajay Lalu Co-Founder & CEO | 2020 | — | — |
| 13 | Kraal Provider of livestock tracking solutions for cows | $164K | 30 mo ago | Seed | Ian Bester Founder & CEO | 2016 | — | — |
| 14 | HomeFarm Developer of IoT-powered hydroponic growing systems | $105K | 46 mo ago | Seed | — | 2016 | — | — |
| 15 | Mapha Online platform offering food delivery services | $100K | 45 mo ago | Funding Raised | Tshidiso Vatsha Co-Founder | 2017 | Cart FunctionalityWordPressMySQL+24 | — |
Top 12 Food and Agriculture Tech companies in South Africa
#1
Series A · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2016 · 19 employees$1.5Mraised▾
Online auction platform for buying and selling livestock products. It offers a mobile application where farmers can register and can make bids online or watch live online auction video streams. The category for bidding includes cattle, sheep, and goats.
- Nov 2025Series A$10M
- Nov 2020Series A$1.5M
#2
Series A · Centurion, Gauteng · founded 2020 · 10 employees$2.5Mraised▾
Marketplace platform offering farm-produced food products. The platform helps to connect fresh produce buyers and sellers by providing a platform for direct and secure transactions. The buyer places an order and transfers funds to a third-party escrow provider. Producers deliver directly to buyers or a centrally located hub for pick-up.
- Jun 2025Series A$10.6M
- May 2022Seed$2.5M
#3
Series A · Johannesburg, Gauteng · founded 2016 · 30 employees$2.7Mraised▾
Provider of an online marketplace for agriculture and food businesses. Its platform enables farmers to list their products for sale and consumers to place orders from preferred producers and suppliers. It also provides a platform for delivery service providers to register and deliver orders. It allows farmers to buy farm inputs and its mobile application is available for the Android platform.
- Mar 2025Series A$6.8M
- Nov 2023Seed—
- May 2023Seed—
- Aug 2021Seed$1.3M
#4
Seed · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2021 · 8 employees$4Mraised▾
Provider of protein ingredients processing services
- Aug 2024Seed$1.5M
- 2022Seed$2.5M
#5
Deadpooled · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2013 · 94 employees$24.6Mraised▾
Online food ordering platform. It offers online food ordering platform that lets users, based on their location select a restaurant of their choice and place an order for delivery or pickup. Users can browse the menu of the listed restaurants. Once an order is placed it is relayed to the partner restaurant. The partner restaurant then delivers the food to the customer's address.
- Jan 2022Series A$4.7M
- 2020Series A$6.9M
- Seed$427K
- Seed$2.5M
#6
Series B · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2014 · 81 employees$27.1Mraised▾
AI-powered yield forecasting for fruit growers, packers, and marketers. The company provides a platform that leverages Artificial Intelligence and smartphone imagery to deliver accurate fruit size, color, and quality measurements. This enables better yield forecasting, business planning, and sales decisions. The platform combines AI measurements with user inputs, offering solutions for various crop types. Key features include precise fruit sizing and forecasting, automated blemish measurements, and post-harvest quality classification. The company's suite of tools enhances farming methods, helping improve profitability by optimizing packouts. The platform supports data-driven decision-making throughout the fruit production and distribution chain. The company offers pricing details and demo requests on its website.
- Dec 2020Series B$17M
- May 2020Series B$5.5M
- Feb 2019Series A$2M
- Jul 2018Series A$2M
#7
Seed · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2018 · 64 employees$4.5Mraised▾
Online retailer offering multi-category grocery products. The product catalogs include fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, snacks, oil, grains, honey, and more. It also provides bakery products, dairy products, and more.
- Jan 2023Seed$4.5M
- Oct 2021Seed—
- Nov 2020Seed—
- Sep 2019Seed—
#8
Acquired · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2017 · 9 employees$5.2Mraised▾
Insect protein company converting waste into sustainable ingredients for various industries. It transforms low-value organic by-products into nutritious and sustainable insect-based products. These include proteins, lipids, fertilizer, and chitosan, catering to animal feed, pet food, crop production, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. The company utilizes state-of-the-art technology to meet the growing demand for sustainable, high-quality ingredients. This approach offers green solutions for businesses by diverting waste from landfills, generating new revenue streams, and improving carbon footprint. The company is a mission-driven business focused on supplying high-quality insect ingredients to local and international markets, promoting a circular economy and sustainable protein production.
- Apr 2022Seed$5.2M
#9
Seed · Sandton, Gauteng · founded 2015 · 23 employees$564.6Kraised▾
Provider of a crowd-farming company for investing in cattle. It allows users to invest in cattle farms and earn from their investments.
- Sep 2022Seed$564.6K
- Sep 2019Conventional Debt$131.8K
#10
Seed · Western Cape · founded 2016 · 2 employees$163.8Kraised▾
Kraal specializes in providing livestock tracking solutions for cows. It offers a solar-powered GPS ear tag that can be installed on the cattle. It also offers a cloud-based platform that allows the farmers to monitor their livestock's location. The company claims that it features include customized virtual fencing, health monitoring, livestock behavior monitoring, etc.
- Nov 2023Seed$163.8K
#11
Seed · Johannesburg, Gauteng · founded 2013 · 108 employees$1.6Mraised▾
Zulzi is an online delivery service provider of grocery items, medicines, etc from local supermarkets.
- May 2020Seed$1.6M
#12
Deadpooled · Cape Town, Western Cape · founded 2015 · 15 employees$1.5Mraised▾
App-based platform offering cashback and offers on grocery shopping. The customer has to book the items through the website or the app before buying them from the offline retail store and send the snap of receipt after purchase. The cashback can be redeemed both online and in-stores.
- Oct 2019Series A—
- Sep 2019Seed—
- Nov 2018Seed$488.1K
- Aug 2017Seed$1M
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Food and Agriculture Tech coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Food Technology is moving in South Africa
A read on the academic research around Food Technology — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 524 South Africa-affiliated papers.
- University of Pretoria75
- University of Johannesburg58
- University of KwaZulu-Natal54
- North-West University43
- University of South Africa37
- Food security5
- Food safety4
- Food science2
- Food processing2
- Quality (philosophy)2
- Food processing1→23
- Food safety1→17
- Food systems1→10
- Population1→5
- Antimicrobial1→4
- Food safety7→69
- Food security14→73
- Agriculture8→52
- Food systems5→42
- Food processing3→31
Where food tech is researched across South Africa
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.