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Acumen has invested in Sommalife, a Ghanaian agribusiness company that aggregates shea nuts and soya beans from smallholder farmers and supplies global buyers.
Sommalife addresses some of the most persistent challenges facing rural farming communities: unreliable markets, low farm-gate prices, post-harvest losses, limited skills training, and accelerating environmental degradation. In many villages, farmers rely on middlemen who offer poor prices and delayed payments, leaving households trapped in volatile income cycles. At the same time, global buyers increasingly require traceability and ethical sourcing – standards that traditional supply chains struggle to meet.
Sommalife bridges this gap through a combination of direct sourcing, community-based training, and market linkage using its proprietary technology, TreeSyt. The company’s TreeSyt platform – built to track crops from farm to buyer – provides real-time traceability data that unlocks premium pricing.
“Sommalife is transforming agriculture in Ghana by equipping smallholder farmers, especially women, with the tools and opportunities they need to thrive,” said Feyisola Adekogbe, investment manager at Acumen. “Through TreeSyt, nursery development, and tailored training, the company is building sustainable livelihoods at scale. During our field visit, one farmer told us, ‘You don’t teach a child how to eat fish; you teach a child how to catch fish.’ That sentiment captures Sommalife’s mission: empowering communities with lasting skills, dignity, and economic resilience.”
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