South African agritech startup SwiftVEE has secured R173m ($10.1m) in a Series A funding round to support its expansion into financial services, alongside its core marketplace.
The round was led by African venture capital firm HAVAÍC and private equity firm Exeo Capital. Notably, Iain Williamson, the former CEO of insurance giant Old Mutual, joined the round, bringing valuable experience from the traditional financial services sector.
Other existing investors, such as fund managers Mike Kirsten and Carlo Dickson, as well as private investment vehicle Zire Africa, also participated in the funding round.
This funding comes at a time when vertical marketplaces across Africa are increasingly integrating embedded finance to enhance margins and customer retention. Initially focused on digitising livestock auctions, SwiftVEE now intends to leverage the new funds to expand into fintech, insurance, and data products, all of which will be added to its trading platform.
Launched in 2019 by Russel Luck, SwiftVEE’s platform aimed to digitise the fragmented livestock value chain. It enables farmers and agents to list cattle, sheep, goats, and game for auction, streaming these events to a broader audience than what would be possible through physical attendance.
The company reports facilitating over $100m (R1.8bn) in gross merchandise value (GMV) annually through “several hundred” auctions. SwiftVEE’s operations have expanded beyond South Africa to Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, with buyer syndicates also operating in the US, Europe, and the UAE.
SwiftVEE’s major opportunity lies in its ability to leverage the data and financial infrastructure it controls. This puts it in a prime position to offer credit and insurance products to farmers, a group traditionally underserved by banks due to the challenges in evaluating agricultural risk.
Earlier this year, SwiftVEE took a step towards this direction by announcing a fintech collaboration with Nedbank, one of South Africa’s leading financial institutions.
