Agri Evolve: Scaling Inclusive Coffee Value Chains Through Digital Finance

Agri Evolve is an impact-driven agribusiness founded in 2015, operating in the Rwenzori highlands of Western Uganda which is one of the country’s premier Arabica coffee regions. The company sources, processes, and exports specialty green coffee to international buyers, while also building a small but growing domestic roasted coffee brand. 

At its core Agri Evolve is a digitally enabled, inclusive sourcing model:

• 25,000+ smallholder farmers engaged (of which 41% are women) 
• 250 agri-partners act as last-mile agents connecting farmers to markets, training, and finance
• 220 Village Savings & Loan Associations (VSLAs) serve as the primary channel for financial inclusion and training
• Digital credit (Emata) provides short-term, harvest-linked loans repaid through coffee sales

Agri Evolve currently exports ~76,900 coffee bags annually (~1% market share) in a national market of 8.8 million bags ($2.5bn). 

Key Findings from the IBA

1. Strong impact on farmer productivity and incomes

• Organic-certified farmers achieve 80% higher yields than conventional farmers 
• Profit per acre reaches $945 vs. $426 for non-organic farmers (+2.2x) 

Productivity is the biggest lever for improving incomes.

2. Digital finance unlocks access, but not yet full productivity gains

• <50% of eligible farmers use digital loans
• Loans are primarily used for consumption (e.g., school fees) rather than farm investment 
• Women show trust gaps with digital borrowing, despite comfort with digital savings 

Access to finance alone is insufficient, usage patterns matter. 

Recommendation: Improve uptake and productive use of digital finance by strengthening farmer training on loan eligibility and use, nudging credit usage from consumption to farm investment and using digital tools to improve agent efficiency.

3. VSLAs are a critical inclusion channel, especially for women

• Act as trusted financial and training platforms
• Provide social collateral and improve repayment discipline
• Enable women’s participation in financial decision-making

Recommendation: Simplify communication on loan terms and insurance payout through VSLAs. Leverage peer champions within VSLAs to drive adoption

4. Climate-smart practices improve resilience and repayment

• Adoption of practices (mulching, trenching, shade trees) improves yields and loan repayment capacity 
• However, uptake is uneven due to labour and cost constraints

Climate resilience and financial performance are tightly linked.

Recommendation: Invest in climate-smart transitions. Link credit more explicitly to climate-smart inputs and practices. Explore affordable financing models for irrigation and inputs

5. Business model is viable and scalable

• Service delivery costs are relatively low due to partner-based delivery
• Digital systems improve traceability, efficiency, and credit underwriting
• Expansion pathway targets ~50,000 farmers by 2030

Strong foundation for scale, with proven farmer and commercial benefits.

Recommendation: Build holistic farmer credit profiles (beyond coffee volumes). Integrate data across loans, VSLAs, and supplier credit

Agri Evolve operates in this context to improve farmer productivity, resilience, and inclusion, especially for women.