#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

Africa Agricultural context

Kenya farming & market access context

Twiga Foods’ early history

Twiga Foods’ Product & monetization strategy

Twiga Foods’ Competitive positioning & potential exit options

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:

Recommendation: Article about end of Life Dreams, Hallmarks of Good Product Sense & This Company Will Give You A Free TV In Exchange For Your Data | AdExchanger

Small win: The EPL season is over, and the suffering of being a Chelsea fan is on pause…

Other content: Winning in Africa’s agricultural market, After 18 Months, Your Investment Probably Isn’t Getting Marked Up - Angellist & Kellogg purchases 50% of Multipro for $450M

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email [email protected] with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at [email protected]

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at [email protected]

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