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Tag: Twiga CEO

  • Twiga Foods Announces Jumia’s Charles Ballard as New CEO

    Twiga Foods Announces Jumia’s Charles Ballard as New CEO

    Nairobi-based agritech company Twiga Foods has named Charles Ballard its new CEO, starting May 1.

    In his new job, Charles Ballard, a well-known figure in e-commerce, brings much knowledge from working in retail and financial services.

    With a lot of experience in the company, he comes to Twiga Foods from Jumia Kenya, where he was CEO most recently. Leading roles included Senior Vice President-Commercial, Chief Operating Officer, and Head of Performance & Planning.

    Read also: Jumia appoints Sunil Natraj as new CEO for Nigeria

    Charles Ballard’s previous role before Jumia 

    Charles was a researcher at Sagaci Research before he joined Jumia in 2019. He worked on retail and e-commerce projects in more than 15 African countries. 

    In addition, he was the deputy chief financial officer at ACTED, a humanitarian NGO that worked in 40 low-income countries around the world. Charles started his work in Mergers & Acquisitions. He learned a lot in Paris and Hong Kong.

    A Master’s degree from the ESSEC Business School in France and a BSc in International Development from the London School of Economics (UoL/LSE) in the UK are two exciting things about him.

    Chairman addresses Twiga Foods New CEO 

    “We are delighted to welcome Charles as our new Chief Executive. His deep understanding of the Kenyan e-commerce and retail landscape, his proven operational grip, his entrepreneurial drive, and his passion for the Twiga Foods opportunity make him the ideal leader to steer Twiga into its next phase of growth and success,” Hein Pretorius, Chairman of Twiga’s board of directors, said.

    Ballard’s hiring comes when Twiga Foods wants to improve Kenya’s farming industry. For the company’s future growth, his knowledge of e-commerce and African markets will be put to good use.

    Twiga said Ballard has worked in e-commerce, retail, and banking services for more than 15 years, with nine of those years spent in the Kenyan market.

    Supported by Twiga’s other senior leaders, he will be in charge of all parts of the company’s business. This will help Kenya’s biggest agri-tech company reach its goal of changing food supply chains in Africa.

    Read also: Jumia Food abandons Nigeria, other African countries

    In 2013, he and Grant Brooke started the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace. After quitting as CEO, he left the board of directors in January, letting foreign investors run the business.

    After he quit, he said he would be taking a six-month break after “an intense 2023” to focus on personal issues.

    The event happened after cloud services provider Incentro Africa sued Twiga for $261,878 (Ksh.35 million at current exchange rates) in unpaid bills. The case was later settled for a stated $35 million (Ksh.4.7 billion) round.

    Because of a rough year for the company in 2023, it fired over a third of its staff in August.

  • Twiga CEO closes $35 million convertible bond deal

    Twiga CEO closes $35 million convertible bond deal

    Peter Njonjo, the CEO of Twiga Foods, a Kenyan startup that links farmers with food vendors, closed a $35 million convertible bond deal before his 6-month sabbatical leave.

    The CEO announced on Thursday that he would be taking six months of leave from the company. This decision raised concerns that Njonjo’s investors might be trying to force him out. Njonjo’s vacation occurred just two weeks after Twiga was able to secure fresh funding to settle its outstanding bills to suppliers. 

    As previously reported, Incentro, a cloud service provider and one of the outstanding suppliers, had requested that a court start the liquidation process in order to compel Twiga to pay its debts. Both companies are still having private discussions to settle the disagreement.

    Cash-strapped, Twiga raised $35 million in convertible bonds from private equity investors Creadev and Juven, which are interest-bearing debt that can also be converted to equity. A person with direct knowledge of the agreement disclosed the transaction. The amount and kind of funding have not been made public before. 

    One of the two private equity firms that contributed to Twiga’s most recent round of funding, Creadev is a division of Mulliez Family Association (AFM), the holding company for investments that manages the finances of a family-owned consumer goods company in France. Usually investing between $500,000 and $10 million, Creadev can write even larger checks when it makes larger commitments to portfolio companies. The second investor, Juven, which is a spinoff of Goldman Sachs, makes investments along similar lines. The evergreen fund makes investments of $10–30 million. 

    Read also: Twiga Foods CEO on leave of absence after court ruling

    Investors’ opinions on Twiga’s CEO

    Investors and longstanding members of Kenya’s tech community conjectured in private talks that Njonjo’s sabbatical period, which came one week after fresh funding, might indicate that investors are tactfully letting him go.

    However, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, Njonjo and Creadev have a “great relationship,” and the investment firm is still “very supportive of the business.” Startups that are trying to digitise the dispersed, unorganised market for packaged foods and fast-moving consumer goods have suffered greatly.

    In addition to changing its business strategy and laying off 30% of its workforce, Twiga eliminated its internal sales department in favour of independent sales contractors. In August, Njonjo declared, “Our investors are fully supportive of this transformation.” 

    Njonjo was optimistic, but a well-known seed stage investor—who wished to remain anonymous so they could express their opinions freely—took a more pessimistic stance.

    “I’m 90% positive Peter got fired. This is the investor’s perspective, he said. The investor continued, “VCs in Africa are having a bad week” as a result of the recent press and internal discussions regarding Twiga and other failing B2B e-commerce startups. Rising inflation and currency devaluation have pushed economies in Africa to the verge of collapse and reduced consumer spending. 

    Twiga’s challenges

    Twiga has suffered in 2023 despite its impressive funding, citing an increasingly difficult business environment. A previous Twiga vendor questioned the company’s monthly burn rate, given that it has raised over $150 million in debt and equity since 2017.

    According to a former vendor, Twiga uses an asset-light business model, meaning it does not own the trucks or warehouses where its operations are located. Around $80 million, or more than half of the total funds raised by Twiga, were obtained in the three years following the exit of co-founder and former CEO Grant Brooke, who left partly because of disagreements with the direction investors wanted to take the business, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions at the time. 

    In order to procure fresh produce directly from farmers and distribute it to Kenya’s urban retailers, Peter Njonjo and Grant Brooke cofounded Twiga in 2014. Investors, including Omidyar Networks, Genevieve Capital, Creadev, and Juven AHL Venture Partners, support the B2B company.