The SEAF Morocco Growth Fund has completed its fourth investment with its acquisition of a stake in SOWIT, a France-based company that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to implement precision agriculture in Africa. The company did not disclose the investment amount.

SOWIT’s technology allows farmers to preserve irrigation water and fertiliser needs and it collects this data with satellite and drone imagery to analyse it with historical climate data to produce predictions and recommendations for agricultural management.

The investment will be used to support the company’s development of its products and services and fuel its expansion in Africa. SOWIT already has a presence in France, Morocco and Senegal.

“We help African farmers to better understand their corps to improve their decision-making and sustainably optimise their yields. This investment will allow us to accelerate our deployment and contribute to raising the productivity and sustainability levels of a continent that contains more than 50 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land,” said Hamza Chaham, co-founder of SOWIT.

SEAF is a global fund management company based in the US that invests in small to medium-sized enterprises in emerging and frontier markets. It has 40 funds in more than 30 countries, with a committed capital of $1.2 billion. Earlier last month, Caisse Marocaine des Retraites (CMR) joined the SEAF Morocco Growth Fund as an institutional investor. The Moroccan public pension group joins credit institution La Caisse Centrale de Granatie, BMCE Bank and USAID as shareholders in the fund.