Kenyan foodtech Twiga secures $50m funding to boost availability of fresh farm produce

Twiga, a Kenyan agritech has secured $50m in Series C round to scale its efforts in the East African nation and other neighbouring countries.  The company has previously raised $30m in Series B round and $10.3 million in Series A round. According to Crunchbase,  Twiga has raised over $100 million in both debt and equity financing rounds.

The round was led by private equity firm Creadev with participation from TLcom Capital, IFC Ventures, DOB Equity, and Goldman Sachs’ spinoff Juven.  OP Finnfund Global and Endeavor Catalyst Fund contributed to the fund as well.

Co-founded in 2014 by Peter Njonjo and Grant Brooke who has since stepped down, Twiga uses technology to build supply chains in food and retail distribution.

Twiga simplifies the supply chain between fresh food producers, FMCG manufacturers and retailers through a B2B e-commerce platform. This removes the need for many intermediaries, significantly lowering the cost of food for consumers.

Speaking on the investment, Pierre Fauvet, Africa director at Creadev, in a statement expressed their belief in the company.

“We are deeply convinced in Twiga’s potential to revolutionize informal retail across  Sub-Saharan Africa”

Pierre Fauvet, Africa director at Creadev

Delivering 600 metric tonnes of product per day

Originally, Twiga connected vendors and outlets with farmers via an app to access different agricultural produce. Now, the company connects FMCGs and manufacturers with retailers.

According to Twiga, over 100,000 customers use its services across Kenya while delivering more than 600 metric tons of product to 10,000+ retailers daily.

In 2020, Twiga entered a partnership with Jumia to deliver produce in Kenya. The partnership is such that Jumia’s delivery fleet picks up orders from Twiga’s sorting and distribution centres and then completes the last mile, contactless delivery.

With about 1,000 employees, Twiga makes its revenue from margins on the products it buys and sells.

Geographical and products expansion plans

The funding acquired will be used to develop an alternative way of producing food by incorporating large commercial farms into the supply chain. This is in a bid to improve the availability of food produce.

Twiga also plans to use part of the funding to roll out low-cost manufactured food and non-food products under its brand before the end of the year.

The company also plans to expand to other East African markets like Uganda and Tanzania, before the end of the year.

“We’ve been fairly successful in Kenya. So, we want to consolidate our dominant position, clear out our proof of concept and expand to the neighbouring countries”

Peter Njojo, CEO Twiga Foods.

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