The new funding will be invested in acquiring technology and equipment, developing an efficient logistics network and laying the foundation to expand into other cities within and outside Kenya.
Twiga Foods eyes the West African market after raising $30 million (Ksh3 Billion) from lenders and investors led by the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Peter Njonjo, chief executive and co-founder of Twiga Foods, said: “This funding enables us to invest in our technology and organization to tackle the inefficiencies in Africa’s domestic food production and distribution ecosystems; a $300bn informal and fragmented market that is estimated to grow to $1trn by 2030.”
“We are developing technology-driven commercial solutions and cooperating with existing industry players to solve the challenge of food security in Africa.”
Twiga Foods is a Kenya based startup that connects smallholder farmers in rural areas to informal retail vendors in cities.
According to Twiga Foods, it raised $23.8 million in equity funding from Goldman Sachs, the International Finance Corp., Creadev SAS and venture-capital firm TLCom Capital Partners Ltd. A further $6 million in debt was acquired from Overseas Private Investment Corp. and AlphaMundi Group AG.
Using technology to accelerate innovation and development
Founded in 2014, Twiga Foods leverages on its technology to aggregate the requirements of the informal retailers through its e-commerce platform and leveraging this to efficiently source produce directly from farmers and food manufacturers.
“By aggregating a fragmented retail space, we are enabling the creation of an efficient domestic agricultural production industry, while generating incremental value for all market participants,” says Njonjo.
“We are also tackling inefficiencies in the supply chain and ultimately passing on the benefit by reducing food prices. Currently, between 30 to 50 percent of fresh produce is lost through poor post-harvest processes,” he adds.
