Kenyan B2B agri-tech startup Taimba, which operates a mobile-based cashless platform connecting rural smallholder farmers to urban retailers, has accessed EUR250,000 (US$277,000) in funding through a partnership with Enviu and the DOEN Foundation.
Taimba sources agricultural products directly from farmers and delivers directly to informal greengrocers, schools, hospitals and restaurants within Nairobi, removing the middlemen and shrinking the agricultural value chain.
It currently has over 2,000 farmers in its portfolio, and engages with 15 farmer savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) selling produce such as potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages and carrots on one side. On the other side, it has more than 300 customers, and it has now secured funding in order to grow into six more markets in Nairobi.
The startups secured US$100,000 funding from Gray Matters Capital’s coLABS last year, at the same time as it agreed a partnership with Enviu, financially supported by the DOEN Foundation, that it is only now formally announcing.
Taimba’s EUR250,000 (US$277,000) funding, which comes as a mixture of equity and grant financing, will enable the startup to integrate cold logistics within its value chain, expand its product offering, optimise its operations and significantly grow its market.
Cold storage and transport will allow Taimba to transport and store a wider range of perishable goods and accommodate a larger lag time between harvesting and sale, leading to greater flexibility and more stable demand for farmers.
“The cold storage solution is important for Taimba to be able to scale up and to grow Taimba’s impact, so it can be an example to innovate and make impact for other companies within the food chain in the region,” said Freija Vermeer from Stichting DOEN. “Furthermore, we believe that the co-operation between Taimba and Enviu is an advantage.”
Enviu, through its Rechain programme in which it links multiple business interventions to achieve a zero food-loss value chain in East Africa, is supporting Taimba in this ambitious growth phase.
