Kenya’s Twiga Foods Raises USD 10 Mn In Series A
Nairobi based AgriTech Startup Twiga Foods has secured USD 10 Mn in a Series A funding round led by World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, Global Agriculture & Food security programme and TLcom Capital. The investment round was also joined by its previous investors DOB Equity, 1776, Adolph H.Lundin and Wamda Capital.
As per the announcement, the newly secured investment will help the startup in expansion and in introducing new products into the market. This round comes after a year of securing USD 10.3 Mn from Wamda Capital. The AgriTech startup which connects smallholder farmers to vendors, claims to have a network of 13000 farmers and 6000 vendors. A mobile application helps both the parties exchange money using M-pesa mobile money payment.
Interestingly, Twiga was also one of the top 10 funded startups in Africa in 2017.
Twiga Foods, in April, had announced partnership with IBM to add a blockchain based micro-financing feature to their platform for farmers in Kenya and across Africa.
As of 2016, agriculture was reported to have weighed in with as much as 32% of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Africa’s food market was valued at about USD 313 Bn in 2013 and is estimated to hit USD 1 Tn mark by 2030. Lately, Agritech startups in Africa are also becoming a top pick for investors, especially, for international investment funds.
