#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 Business

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:

• 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

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