Kenya’s Twiga Foods secures $5m from French investor Creadev

Nairobi-based mobile-based B2B distribution platform Twiga Foods has secured a $5-million investment from French investor Creadev.

Citing a statement it had received, Kenyan radio station KassFM said in an article yesterday that as part of the deal a number of early investors in Twiga Foods had sold some of their initial stake as part of a strategy to accommodate later stage and longer-term investors.

These early investors are the Adolf H. Lundin Charitable Foundation, Blue Haven Ventures, Crescat Limited, Omidyar Networks, Index Ventures through Project Hand Purpose Trust and Uqalo.

Twiga Foods’ platform aggregates the requirements of the informal retailers through its m-commerce platform and leverages this to efficiently source produce directly from farmers and food manufacturers.

CEO Peter Njonjo (pictured above) — who founded the startup in 2014 with American Grant Brooke (who served as the startup’s CEO until earlier this year) — said the investment will support the startup’s efforts to grow its ecosystem of farmers and retailers.

The investment brings the total disclosed venture capital that Twiga Foods has raised to $35m

Business intelligence platform Crunchbase estimates that the deal brings the total amount of disclosed venture capital that Twiga Foods has raised since it was founded to $35-million.

Creadev — which is backed by one of France’s richest families, the Mulliez family — said in a post on LinkedIn yesterday that the deal marks the firm’s first investment in Africa.

Earlier this month, the IFC announced it had signed a partnership with Twiga Foods to boost the company’s food safety practices in line with global standards and ensure traceability of produce from the farm to consumers.

Read more: Kenyan supply platform Twiga Foods set to secure up to $7m from IFC, TLCom
Read more: Kenya’s Twiga Foods secures $10m investment from IFC, TLcom

Featured image: Twiga Foods CEO Peter Njonjo (NairobiGarage via Twitter)