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Tag: ‘Twiga Foods

  • 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 Foods CEO on leave of absence after court ruling

    Twiga Foods CEO on leave of absence after court ruling

    Twiga Foods, a Kenyan e-commerce platform, has revealed that its CEO, Peter Njonjo, is taking a leave of absence to concentrate on personal affairs following what he refers to as “an intense 2023.”

    This development occurred just after Twiga Food was given four months by a Nairobi court to resolve its disagreement with cloud service provider Incentro Africa. Due to unpaid debt, Incentro Africa filed a lawsuit to force Twiga Foods into liquidation. Incentro is requesting payment of up to KES 39 million. On March 13, 2024, the court is scheduled to hear the case.

    Twiga’s COO, Laurent Gouault, will oversee the business’s operations and commercial division while Mr. Njonjo is away, while CFO, Zuber Momoniat, will handle the company’s finance and legal departments.

    The board has shared the announcement and stated that it supports Njonjo’s decision to take the six-month vacation. This occurred about two weeks after the B2B supply platform obtained fresh capital in an undisclosed amount from TLcom Capital Partners, DOB Equity, Juven, and Creadev.

    “Following the successful capital raise, the board supports Peter’s decision to take a sabbatical and has full confidence in the capabilities of Twiga’s recently bolstered senior leadership team.” Hein Pretorius, Chairman of Twiga, said.

    Peter Njonjo will continue to hold a board position.

    Read also: ‘‘Twiga Foods’’ begins massive Maize cultivation in Kenya 

    Details on the lawsuit

    The most funded e-commerce platform in Kenya has four months to resolve a liquidation claim pertaining to unpaid debts in a dispute over a $3 million cloud services contract.

    Twiga Foods, the most funded e-commerce platform in Kenya, and Incentro, a Google Cloud reseller, have been granted five months by a Kenyan court in Nairobi to settle their disagreement over Twiga’s debt to Incentro. According to Incentro, Twiga owes it $450,000 in delinquent bills and a postponed Google incentive. However, Twiga says it only has a $94,000 debt. 

    As the e-commerce company transitioned from rapid expansion to trying to turn a profit, Twiga allegedly fell behind on monthly payments on a three-year contract for cloud services, according to Incentro. 

    The matter was supposed to be heard by the court last week, but it was postponed until March 13, 2024 since both sides failed to meet the previous date. Incentro, a Google Cloud reseller, provided Twiga with a three-year contract worth $3 million that is at the centre of the controversy.

    Twiga Foods 2023 recap

    For Kenya’s most well-funded e-commerce company, 2023 has been a busy year filled with legal issues, past-due bills, financial shortages, and organisational reorganisation. In response to the challenging economic conditions, the company has implemented many sustainable measures. The goal is to become a “lean, agile, cost-efficient organization,” as the outgoing CEO describes it.

    Mr. Njonjo has previously said that the 2023 “funding winter” is to blame for Twiga’s lack of or reduced funds. Fewer investment rounds and even fewer firms have received funding during the funding winter as foreign investors withhold their money. According to Mr. Njonjo, during a media roundtable in August, the company had to restructure as part of a goal to slash costs by forty percent.

    Shortly after eliminating the internal salesforce team, the Agri-Tech company let go of 283 permanent employees in August, accounting for one-third of its workforce. Twiga Foods would choose to use multiple independent sales agents as a result of this modification to its sales model.

  • Twiga Foods gets reprieve in liquidation case

    Twiga Foods gets reprieve in liquidation case

    Twiga Foods, an agritech company based in Kenya, has resisted an attempt by a cloud services provider to liquidate the company over an alleged debt of 39 million Kenyan shillings.

    After contesting the debt, the company, owned by the billionaire Peter Njonjo, was successful in having temporary orders issued that prevented Incentro Africa Ltd. from progressing with the liquidation plan.

    Twiga informed Justice Josephine Mong’are that the liquidation petition was filed in retaliation after it complained directly to Google Ireland, the ultimate provider of the cloud services, about how the billing account was created, organised, and managed. This was done to cover up the true motivation behind the petition.

    The hearing on the case is scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning, per the directive of Justice Mong’are.

    “That Incentro Africa is acting unreasonably in pursuing liquidation of the company instead of pursuing other remedies as set out in the agreement between the parties,” the firm said in the petition.

    Following the delivery of an undated demand for $261,878 to Twiga, which was also filed in court on September 4th, the company decided to seek legal recourse.

    Read also: ‘‘Twiga Foods’’ begins massive Maize cultivation in Kenya 

    Why Twiga is against the demand

    Daniel Ngugi, who is the head of legal for the agritech company, stated that the demand was flawed due to the fact that it had been presented too early.

    Mr Ngugi added that the Google Cloud services provider made the demand in bad faith and in an effort to coerce Twiga into paying a debt that did not exist.

    “That in the event that Incentro Africa is allowed to file and publish a liquidation petition, it will cause extreme damage to the company because of the wrongful impression to its employees, business partners, bankers, creditors and partners and the Kenya Revenue Authority that the company is insolvent,” he said.

    Mr Ngugi stated that any procedures to dissolve the firm would result in cross-default for all of the company’s lenders regarding all of the loan obligations that it is currently servicing.

    Twiga is a business-to-business marketplace platform that acquires food directly from farmers and then delivers it to urban shops by means of a mobile-based cashless (B2B) supply platform. This allows Twiga to get access to distribution among the millions of small and medium-sized vendors who work in urban marketplaces.

    The company needed to work with a cloud services provider in order to operationalize and improve its business, and the distributor has been utilising Incentro’s Google Cloud platform reseller account since it was established.

    “For its suppliers, the threatened liquidation proceedings would extinguish the credit terms the company has, putting the company in a negative working capital position,” Mr Ngugi said.

    He stated that the cloud services contract was executed between Twiga and an entity known as Incentro Africa BV. Incentro Africa BV is a separate legal entity from Incentro Africa Ltd., which is the company that Incentro Africa Ltd. works for.

    According to Mr Ngugi, Incentro Africa, whose CEO is Dennis De Weerd, is unable to benefit or claim from the provisions of that contract, and the statutory demand is consequently flawed and unmerited.

    Incentro Africa BV and Twiga are the parties that are credited with having executed an addition to the cloud services agreement that was later discovered to be undated by Google.

    Twiga, on the other hand, asserts that the addition is invalid and cannot be enforced because Incentro Africa BV is a different and independent legal company from Incentro Africa Ltd.

    Twiga fires 283 employees due to tough business environment

    Twiga’s commitment

    Twiga made a commitment to a minimum obligation in terms of the amount of money it would spend on Google platform services and technical support services.

    According to the allegations, the minimum commitment amounted to $3,034,007 and was to be fulfilled over the course of three years. It was expected that failing to meet the minimum commitment obligation would result in the cloud services agreement being terminated.

    In addition to this, it established a partner services fund, by means of which Twiga made a commitment to employ authorised partner services provided by Incentro Africa BV, and in exchange, Google agreed to pay Incentro Africa a total of $168,000 in cash.

    The amount being requested takes into account unused and accrued cash for partner services in addition to interest and other professional fees, bringing the total to 244,008.

    A month later, Mr. Ngugi alleged that Google cloud services and partner service funds presented Twiga with a second demand for payment in the amount of $261,878.

    According to the food distributor, a reconciliation of its account with Incentro reveals that the sole money still owed for the utilisation of Google Cloud services is 13.2 million Kenyan Shillings.

    The company claims that it has paid Incentro Africa Sh95 million over the course of two years, which demonstrates that the company is acting in good faith and has the desire to honour its contractual commitments.

  • ‘‘Twiga Foods’’ begins massive Maize cultivation in Kenya 

    ‘‘Twiga Foods’’ begins massive Maize cultivation in Kenya 

    As part of a public-private partnership with the Kenyan government to increase food production, Twiga Foods, a B2B food commerce company, has started cultivating maize.

    The Galana-Kulalu Food Security Project is a pilot study experiment inside the broader Galana Irrigation System, a massive 1 million-acre agricultural project intended to enhance food production in Kenya.

    As part of the Galana-Kulalu Food Security project, a model farm of 10,000 acres was set up to test the effectiveness of innovative irrigation methods on a large scale.

    Nevertheless, since 2014, the project has had difficulty meeting goals because of alterations in financial allocations and adverse weather.

    According to projections for 2019, the model farm will sell 1.2 billion kilos of corn annually.

    Unfortunately, just 119,000 90-kilogram bags of maize, or around Ksh 273.7 million, were produced.

    Read also: Twiga Expand Operations In Kenya with Twiga Fresh

    The Kenyan government declared in January 2023 that it would allow private businesses to operate on 5,000 acres of the Galana-Kulalu Irrigation Scheme as part of a government-private partnership to enhance food production.

    According to the Kenya Revenue Authority, Twiga Foods is the first private company to start commercial farming in the Galana-Kulalu project region. Twiga Foods was recognised as the highest paying Medium Taxpayer in 2016.

    Twiga Fresh Investment

    Twiga Foods started its first farm in May 2022 in order to have more control over its supply chain.

    With a $10 million investment, the new company Twiga Fresh was established to cultivate 1,606 acres of land and produce onions, tomatoes, and watermelons at an annualised rate of 150,000 tonnes.

    Twiga will continue to act as the parent company for the business’ ongoing B2B e-commerce initiatives with the aim of providing independent retailers with a one-stop supply-chain solution through the distribution of both Twiga and other brands’ goods.

    Twiga Fresh, in addition to our expanding selection of private label products, will ensure we increase client numbers and widen the basket size by providing high-quality produce at a discount compared to going market rates, according to Peter Njonjo, CEO and co-founder of Twiga.

    This is in line with a trend of large B2B food commerce companies in East Africa to integrate backwards in order to get much greater control over their supply chain.

    Kenyan officials decided to enlist one of their favourite taxpayers to launch the Galana-Kulalu Food Security Project after learning about Twiga’s intentions to launch a commercial farm.

    The best producing farms in the industry are those owned by Twiga, as we can attest from firsthand knowledge.

    According to BusinessDaily Africa, a Kenyan business media magazine, these “would not only allow us to achieve food security but also create jobs,” said Mugambi Gitonga, Senior Secretary for Irrigation.

    By offering subsidies for unga (maize flour) and other goods, the national government of Kenya has stepped in to address the record-high prices of basic necessities.

    In an effort to prevent a famine, Kenya’s government signed agreements to block the entry of genetically modified items and to hasten the supply of necessary food staples.

    Kenyan producers have spoken out strongly against both proposals.

    According to the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research Analysis, 14.5 million Kenyans experience food insecurity and poor nutrition every year, and 2.6 million are considered to be in a “crisis” of food insecurity.

    Twiga Foods was founded in 2013 and has since raised a total of $157.1 million from venture investors to become one of Africa’s top retail B2B food commerce businesses.

    Moroccan Foodtech Terraa Raises $1.5 Million Pre-seed

    About Twiga Foods

    Twiga is a tech-driven company that connects buyers and sellers across Africa and streamlines the delivery of high-end goods and services.

    Our efforts to change retail in Africa are being led by Twiga Co-Founder and CEO Peter Njonjo, who will also be in charge of leading the business into the future.

    Peter started Twiga after working for Coca-Cola as the president of their West African business unit and later as the general manager of their East African franchise.

    Twiga Foods was founded in 2014 by Peter Njonjo and Grant Brooke, both of whom have held the position of CEO. Twiga identified the opening in Kenya’s unorganised food business.