From AfricArena's Best Climate Tech Startup to Tanzania: Rhea Raises $100,000 for Its Next Move.

Two years after winning in Nairobi, Kenya's Rhea has a convertible note led by Obudu Capital to roll out its AgriPad soil-testing device and find out whether its soil intelligence model can travel beyond Kenya.

For most smallholder farmers, the soil is the least visible part of the farm. Yields fall, so more fertiliser goes on. The soil becomes more acidic, the crop absorbs fewer nutrients, and the cycle repeats, often without anyone knowing what the soil actually needs.

Kenyan agritech company Rhea Soil Health Management is tackling that problem by making soil testing fast, affordable and understandable for the people who need it most.

And for AfricArena, Rhea's story is particularly meaningful.

From AfricArena Nairobi award winner to funded regional expander

Rhea was a standout at the AfricArena Nairobi Summit, held on 3 and 4 September 2024 at Shamba Events in Loresho Ridge. Competing in the SAIS powered by GIZ cohort, the company won the Best Climate Tech Startup Award, with co-founder Soinato Leboo collecting the award on stage.

That win took Rhea to the AfricArena Grand Summit in Cape Town in December 2024, where the team pitched to the full AfricArena investor community.

Since then, the company has kept building, and kept raising. Rhea received $75,000 through the Women in Tech Financing Facility, a Village Capital initiative with Standard Chartered, to develop and deploy its soil-testing technology. In September 2026 it announced a further $100,000 convertible note led by Obudu Capital.

This is exactly the kind of founder journey AfricArena seeks to follow: not simply celebrating startups at a single event, but staying connected as they move from early validation to commercial growth.

A soil lab that fits in a farmer's hands

Soil testing has traditionally meant sending samples to a laboratory, waiting, and then trying to interpret a page of numbers. Rhea was founded in 2022 by Priscilla Wakarera and Soinato Leboo to change that.

Its flagship product, the AgriPad, is a portable soil-testing device that combines proprietary sensors, software and machine learning to produce field-level soil data. The results are then translated into practical recommendations and delivered through channels farmers already use, including WhatsApp.

The model is built around people as much as devices. In the first half of 2026, Rhea recruited and trained 135 agronomist agents across Makueni, Taita Taveta and Kajiado, and launched the Rhea Agent App to support their fieldwork. It also introduced Rhea Optima, aimed at medium and large-scale farmers, agronomists and laboratories. A 2025 patent application filed in Kenya describes a handheld kit that captures soil data, uses GPS and feeds a web-based fertiliser recommendation system.

The result is a company that is simultaneously about farmer income, input efficiency, environmental conservation and better data for the whole agricultural value chain.

Why this matters beyond Kenya

The problem Rhea is solving is not uniquely Kenyan. Across the continent, farmers are making fertiliser decisions with little or no historical soil data, and the people who finance, insure and supply them are making decisions with the same blind spot.

That is where Rhea's data infrastructure becomes interesting. Beyond farm productivity, the company's data speaks to lenders, input suppliers and crop insurers who need reliable metrics to price risk and measure the outcomes of their projects.

It is also a reminder of where some of Africa's biggest opportunities sit: at the intersection of technology and deeply physical sectors such as agriculture, energy and logistics. Building a science-driven hardware and software business is harder than building software alone. It needs continuous R&D, manufacturing, field operations and patient capital. Companies that get it right create something much harder to copy.

Obudu Capital backs the next phase

The new $100,000 convertible note is tied to clear commercial milestones, including deploying 100 new testing devices and engaging more than 5,000 farmers. It will also support the expansion into Tanzania.

For Obudu Capital, Rhea was its first portfolio investment. Managing Partner Nela Ekpenyong said the deal reflects the firm's focus on "backing visionary founders solving critical climate and food security challenges."

Tanzania will be a real test. Different soil conditions, cropping patterns and distribution channels mean the model cannot simply be copied across the border. But proving that soil intelligence can travel is exactly what will turn Rhea from a successful Kenyan startup into a regional platform.

What comes next

There is a fitting contrast in Rhea's latest chapter.

When the company took the stage in Nairobi in 2024, the question was whether farmers would trust a handheld soil test and act on what it told them. Two years on, the question has moved: can that model work in a new country, with different soils, different crops and different ways of reaching farmers?

The next few milestones will go a long way towards answering it. Rhea has committed to deploying 100 new testing devices and engaging more than 5,000 farmers, while building out its network of agronomist agents and taking its first steps into Tanzania.

From Nairobi award winner to a new round led by Obudu Capital, Rhea is a powerful example of how African founders turn invisible problems into scalable businesses.

For AfricArena, that is exactly why the story is worth following. We'll be watching closely, and cheering on Priscilla Wakarera, Soinato Leboo and the whole Rhea team as they take soil intelligence across the border.