Kenyan agri-tech startup Twiga Foods has received a US$5 million secondary investment from France’s richest family, the Mulliez family, to support its growth.
Founded in 2014, Twiga Foods is a business to business food distribution company that builds fair and reliable markets for agricultural producers and retailers through transparency, efficiency and technology.
The startup is one of the best-funded on the continent, securing a US$10.3 million Series A funding round in 2017 and a further US$10 million last November, and has now raised an additional US$5 million from the Mulliez family’s investment firm Creadev.
As part of the secondary transaction, early investors in Twiga Foods including Adolf H. Lundin Charitable Foundation, Blue Haven Ventures, Crescat Limited, Omidyar Network and Index Ventures have partially sold their stakes in the startup as it looks to accommodate later-stage investors.
“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 Twiga Foods chief executive officer (CEO) Peter Njonjo, who recently joined the company after 21 years at Coca-Cola.
Sarah Ngamau and Pierre Fauvet, Africa heads for Creadev, said they were proud to enter into a long-term partnership with Twiga as the startup answers 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. We believe the appointment of Mr Njonjo as CEO is another proof of Twiga’s ambitions and willingness to grow to the next level,” they said.
“We will leverage on Creadev’s international retail network and future funding capacity to support the team in executing this ambitious expansion plan and continue delivering their strong value proposition to small-holder farmers, informal retailers, and end customers.”
