Twiga Foods, one of Kenya’s best-funded technology startups, has entered statutory administration, marking a major setback for a company that raised about $185.4 million in disclosed funding and was once positioned as a leading technology platform for transforming Africa’s fragmented food supply chain.
The company’s operating entity, GT Flow Limited, formerly known as Twiga Foods One Limited, entered administration on August 17, 2026, according to Gazette Notice No. 14595 published in the Kenya Gazette on September 11.
The company’s directors can no longer deal with its assets without the administrator’s authorization, while creditors have 30 days from publication of the notice to submit their claims. Mohamed Mohamed was appointed administrator, giving him control over the company’s business, assets and affairs.
The move follows years of financial pressure, cost-cutting, management changes, creditor disputes and attempts to restructure Twiga’s capital-intensive distribution model.
Administration does not mean Twiga has been liquidated. Under Kenya’s insolvency framework, the administrator is expected to determine whether the business can be rescued, whether creditors would obtain a better outcome through continued operations or restructuring, or whether assets ultimately need to be sold.
From startup darling to financial distress
Founded in 2014 by Peter Njonjo and Grant Brooke, Twiga built a technology-enabled distribution network designed to connect farmers and manufacturers with informal retailers.
The company sought to eliminate some of the inefficiencies and middlemen in Kenya’s food supply chain by combining digital ordering with centralized procurement, warehousing and logistics. The model attracted significant international backing with Twiga raising approximately $185.4 million in disclosed equity and debt financing during its lifetime, making it one of the most heavily funded startups in Kenya and one of the continent’s most prominent agritech ventures.
TechMoran reported on Twiga’s $50 million funding round in 2021, when the company was preparing for further expansion of its technology and distribution platform. At its peak, Twiga’s proposition was built around using technology to coordinate one of the most difficult parts of African commerce: moving food from producers to thousands of small retailers efficiently and affordably.
But the business required substantial spending on warehouses, distribution centers, employees, vehicles, inventory and working capital. That infrastructure ultimately became one of the company’s biggest challenges.
Warning signs emerged in 2023
Twiga’s financial difficulties became increasingly public in 2023. The company cut about 283 employees, roughly a third of its workforce at the time, as it attempted to reduce operating costs and move toward a leaner organization. In September 2023, TechMoran reported that Twiga faced a potential liquidation petition over an outstanding $263,691 debt claimed by Incentro Africa for Google Cloud services. Twiga disputed the claim and challenged the liquidation process. The dispute was eventually resolved.
In January 2024, TechMoran reported that Twiga Foods and Incentro Africa had reached an agreement and that Incentro had withdrawn its statutory demand against the company. The resolution, however, did not eliminate the broader financial pressures facing the business.
Founder Peter Njonjo steps aside
Twiga’s leadership also changed during the period of financial stress. In December 2023, TechMoran reported that co-founder and CEO Peter Njonjo had taken a six-month sabbatical following what he described as an “intense 2023.” The company said it was working with investors on refinancing and restructuring while also seeking to settle outstanding supplier obligations. In Janaury 2024, Njonjo announced his resignation from the firm, years after his co-founder had exited the firm.
After Njonjo left the company’s leadership, and in April 2024 Twiga appointed Charles Ballard, the former Jumia Kenya chief executive, as CEO. TechMoran reported that Ballard’s mandate included steering Twiga through its next phase of growth after a difficult 2023 marked by layoffs and the liquidation dispute. Twiga tries to become asset-light by 2025, the company was pursuing a much more radical restructuring.
TechMoran reported in June 2025 that Twiga was implementing an internal restructuring known as Project Easter, under which it planned to create a leaner NewCo and move much of its logistics operation to third-party providers.
The plan involved 319 employees leaving the company, reducing the workforce to about 435 people, while logistics operations were to be increasingly handled by companies including Jumra, Sojpar and Raisons. The restructuring represented a fundamental shift in Twiga’s original model.
Instead of owning and operating much of its physical distribution infrastructure, the company sought to become a lighter technology and coordination platform while relying on third-party logistics providers. The objective was straightforward: reduce the company’s burn rate and make the underlying business economically sustainable. But the scale of the restructuring also illustrated how far Twiga had moved from its earlier growth strategy.
A second attempt to avoid insolvency
TechMoran had already reported in April 2025 that Twiga was selling or transferring parts of its distribution operations to Jumra, Sojpar and Raisons, as the company attempted to avoid insolvency and reduce the burden of its logistics infrastructure. The strategy was designed to preserve distribution capacity while reducing the costs associated with operating the network directly. The latest administration suggests those efforts were ultimately insufficient to resolve the company’s financial problems.
Creditors now face the next stage
The administration of GT Flow puts the company’s financial position under a formal insolvency process. The administrator must now assess the company’s assets and liabilities, verify creditor claims and determine the most viable path for the business. A separate financial problem had already emerged elsewhere in the Twiga ecosystem.
In March 2026, creditors filed a winding-up petition at Kenya’s High Court seeking the liquidation of Twiga Tatu SEZ Limited, another entity associated with the group. It remains unclear from the administration notice exactly which assets, liabilities and operations of the broader Twiga ecosystem fall within GT Flow’s administration.
What went wrong at Twiga?
Twiga’s administration highlights the difficult economics of building technology businesses that depend on physical infrastructure.
The company was not simply a software platform. Its model required the movement of real products through warehouses, distribution centers and transport networks while maintaining sufficient working capital to purchase and distribute inventory.
That created a significantly higher cost base than a pure software startup.
The company also expanded during a period when global investors were willing to finance rapid growth, before the venture capital market shifted toward profitability, stronger unit economics and lower cash burn.
Twiga subsequently faced the same pressures confronting many African startups: higher operating costs, tighter access to venture capital and growing investor demands for a path to profitability.
Its repeated restructuring efforts show how difficult it proved to reconcile the economics of physical distribution with the expectations attached to a venture-backed technology company.
From $185 million to administration
Twiga’s journey is now one of the most significant cautionary stories in Kenya’s startup ecosystem.
The company raised hundreds of millions of dollars in equity and debt, attracted some of the world’s biggest institutional investors and built one of Africa’s most recognizable technology-enabled food distribution platforms.
Yet capital alone could not solve the fundamental challenge of building a profitable distribution network in a highly fragmented market.
TechMoran’s reporting over the past three years documented the progression from the 2023 layoffs and creditor dispute, through Njonjo’s departure and the appointment of Ballard, to the 2025 NewCo restructuring and outsourcing of logistics. The administration now puts the future of one of Kenya’s most prominent startup stories in the hands of an administrator. For Twiga, the immediate question is no longer how quickly it can expand. It is whether there is enough viable business left to save.