AgriFI and Acumen Make EUR 1.8 Million Equity Investment in Vitara Agritech to Strengthen Ghana’s Shea Value Chain

EDFI Management Company, through the European Union-funded AgriFI Ghana Country Window, together with Acumen and a network of angel investors, has made an equity investment in Vitara Agritech, a Ghanaian B-Corp certified agri-tech company building more traceable and sustainable shea value chains. AgriFI, alongside additional investment from Acumen and the angel investors, is investing EUR 1.8 million. The investment will support traceable sourcing, women producers and the protection of shea landscapes in northern Ghana. The support will allow the company to expand its work with women producers, strengthen the reach of its solutions and build a more transparent and sustainable shea supply chain, according to Mawuse Gyisun, COO and Co-Founder of Vitara Agritech.

Founded in 2020 and formerly known as Sommalife, Vitara connects smallholder shea producers to international manufacturers. Its proprietary digital platform, TreeSyt, supports farmer profiling, sourcing, training and tree monitoring, helping to bring greater traceability to a value chain that has traditionally relied on informal intermediaries. Vitara’s main clients are European companies specialised in plant-based oils and fats, and shea sourced in Ghana is used principally in cocoa butter equivalents for chocolate and confectionery products.

Around 91 percent of the farmers in Vitara’s network are women. During the latest shea season, the company actively worked with approximately 47,000 women farmers, for whom shea is an important source of household income. Chris Maranga, Africa Director at Acumen, said the women who harvest and process Ghana’s shea have for generations been “shut out of reliable markets”, and that Vitara is opening the door to higher, more stable incomes through a growing network of farmers and community agents. He added that as the company scales toward one million farmers by 2030, it shows how technology, transparent markets and climate stewardship can reshape West Africa’s agricultural supply chains.

AgriFI, the European Union Agriculture Financing Initiative (AgriFI), is an impact investment facility funded by the European Union and managed by EDFI Management Company. The AgriFI Ghana Country Window is a EUR 10 million window dedicated to sustainably increasing production and incomes of smallholder farmers in Ghana. It supports the modernisation of agri-food systems in the five Northern regions. The transaction marks AgriFI’s first direct equity investment in Ghana.