#64: Twiga Foods - How the AgriTech supply chain company is connecting SMB retailers and smallholder farmers to improve food logistics across Kenya and Africa
Afrobility: Africa Tech and BusinessJune 02, 2023
64
02:12:35212.42 MB

#64: Twiga Foods - How the AgriTech supply chain company is connecting SMB retailers and smallholder farmers to improve food logistics across Kenya and Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Twiga Foods. We’ll explore the story across the following 6 areas

  1. Africa Agricultural context

  2. Kenya farming & market access context

  3. Twiga Foods’ early history

  4. Twiga Foods’ Product & monetization strategy 

  5. Twiga Foods’ Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  6. Future outlook.

This episode was recorded on May 28, 2023

Companies discussed: Twiga Foods, Apollo Agriculture, Vendease, Kibanda, Kellogg, Tolaram, Multipro, Olam, Dangote, Coca-Cola, Shoprite, Cargill, Nestle, Unilever & Safaricom (M-Pesa)

Business concepts discussed: Agriculture technology (AgTech, AgriTech or AgroTech), Agribusiness marketplaces, farming financing, Farmer market access opportunities, SMB Retail, B2B solutions and Agriculture Logistics.

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:00) - Twiga Foods context

  • (08:53) - Africa Agriculture context

  • (18:30) - Kenya background and agriculture context

  • (23:34) - Market access context in Africa

  • (31:20) - Market access context at Twiga Foods' founding

  • (40:12) - Founders’ background and farming context

  • (56:10) - Fundraising

  • (1:04:10) - Geographical expansion, Partnerships and Hiring

  • (1:15:00) - Metrics

  • (1:20:15) - Product & Monetization strategy, Cost structure

  • (1:32:58) - Competition

  • (1:35:00) - Options for exit

  • (1:45:50) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:58:58) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:06:31) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Berkshire Hathaway story on the Acquired podcast. It has multiple parts and is really good. The Acquired podcast is like the non-African version of Afrobility. They tell stories of companies in developed markets. Alternatively you could say Afrobility is the African version of Acquired.

  • Recommendation: Exxon-Mobil analyses on Business Breakdown podcast. Business Breakdowns is like a more serious suit-and-tie version of Acquired. As you can tell from my recommendations I like podcasts that analyse businesses.

  • Small win: Sao Paulo trip. It was fun. 

  • Small win: To physically touch and hold the Firedom (financial independence) book. I and Samon released the paperback and hardcover versions in May and I just received my author copy. It feels magical, the book is beautiful and bright red.

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:


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