Kenya’s Twiga Foods, a B2B platform that aggregates retail demand and efficiently provides low cost access to better quality food has raised $5m from French investment firm Creadev to help Twiga achieve its ambitious goals.
Creadev is run by the Paris-based Mulliez family with operations in Nairobi, Shanghai, and New York. Mulliez runs France’s biggest superstores.
In a statement announcing the investment, Sarah Ngamau and Pierre Fauvet, who head Creadev’s activities in Africa, said: “We are proud to enter into this long-term partnership with Twiga as they answer a massive market need: the structuration and formalization of the food logistics supply chain. We are impressed by Twiga’s fast growth, driven by an experienced and result-oriented management team.”
Creadev says it will make available its international retail network and future funding capacity to support Twiga Foods in executing her ambitious expansion plan and continue delivering their strong value proposition to small-holder farmers, informal retailers, and end customers.
Early investors Adolf H. Lundin Charitable Foundation, Blue Haven Ventures, Crescat Limited, Omydiar Networks, Index Ventures through Project Hand Purpose Trust, and Uqalo have partially sold their stake as part of a strategy to accommodate later stage and longer-term investors.
Founded in 2014, Twiga Foods’ m-commerce platform links farmers and food manufacturers to markets through a transparent and efficient supply chain, delivering the product directly to the retailers and reducing post-harvest losses on fresh produce. Farmers have an easier and more predictable access to market, enabling them to increase their revenues; while retailers use the m-Commerce platform to easily order high-quality food products which are delivered directly at their shops while end-customers get access to higher quality and safer food at cheaper prices.
Twiga currently works with 17,000 farmers, and 2,500 retailers daily and is looking to further expand its operations within and outside Kenya. Peter Njonjo, a co-founder in Twiga, recently joined as CEO, a move that was well received by the investor community as the company sought to strengthen its management team. Peter was until recently President of Coca-Cola’s West and Central Africa business, where he had a 21 year career.
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“Having Creadev join our shareholding is a huge boost to our mission to deliver safe, affordable high-quality food to urban consumers, while providing reliable markets for farmers. It will support our efforts towards growing our ecosystem of farmers and retailers,” said CEO of Twiga Foods, Peter Njonjo.
