Twiga Foods has launched a new farming subsidiary in a bid to expand to expand its business beyond supplying fresh produce and commodities through a mobile-based platform.
In its latest development, the agri-tech company injected KSh 1.16 billion into Twiga Fresh which will major in onions, tomatoes and watermelons farming.
The company has moved to acquire a 650-acre in Taita Taveta County where it intends to apply modern farming techniques to boost yields.
According to Twiga Foods chief executive and co-founder Peter Njonjo, the new program is part part of its product diversification strategy.
“Twiga Fresh, in addition to our growing range of private label products, will ensure we drive growth in customer numbers and broaden the basket size by offering quality produce at a discount against prevailing market prices,” Njonjo said.
Twiga Foods is among Kenyan startup companies that recorded 13.6 percent investment grown of the total African growth.
The African Tech Startups Funding Report 2021 showed that 564 businesses in Africa raised over KSh 248.4 billion in funding.
Two Kenyan companies boosted the country’s growth after raising slightly over KSh 15.6 billion of the total funds.
The companies, AI Company Gro Intelligence and Twiga Foods raised KSh 9.8 billion in the Series B round and KSh 5.8 billion in Series C respectively.
Kenya was ranked among Africa’s four biggest economies for start up funding alongside Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa.
Nigeria raised KSh 104.9 billion worth of tech start-up funding with Egypt emerging second with KSh 51.7 billion.