Kenya's Twiga Foods enters administration after $35M lifeline fails
What's the deal? Twiga Foods, the Kenyan agri-tech startup that raised $185.4 million over its lifetime, has fallen into administration. A legal notice published September 11 confirmed that GT Flow LtdDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — formerly Twiga Foods One Ltd — entered administration on August 17, handing control of its assets and operations to administrator Mohamed Mohamed.
The backstory: Peter Njonjo and Grant Brooke founded Twiga in 2014 to fix Kenya's fragmented fresh-produce supply chain, using an app to link farmers directly with urban vendors and kiosks. But running warehouse fleets, handling perishables, and extending credit to small shops burned cash faster than the business earned it.
Why now? By late 2023, Twiga was shedding staff, falling behind on vendor payments, and locked in a dispute with cloud provider IncentroDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. To stay afloat, it raised a $35 million convertible bond in December 2023 from long-term backers CreadevDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and JuvenDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with Njonjo adding $1 million of his own savings.
The layoffs: The lifeline proved short-lived. Njonjo took a sabbatical, resigned from the board in early 2024, and handed the chief executive role to former JumiaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → executive Charles Ballard, who cut more than 300 jobs as part of a broader restructuring.
What went wrong? Ballard shifted strategy, buying majority stakes in three consumer-goods distributors — JumraDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, SojparDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and RaisonsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — in May 2025 to move toward a franchise-style model. The overhaul was not enough to outrun past debts, and the notice leaves no breakdown of GT Flow's remaining assets or liabilities.
What's next? Mohamed said he plans to consult stakeholders to work toward an orderly resolution, giving creditors a 30-day window to file claims. "The administrator takes control over the business assets and the management of the affairs of the Company without personal liability," the filing stated.
The signal: That $35 million convertible round sat in the top 1% of comparable deals for Kenyan startups in its sector, a marker of how heavily investors backed Twiga even as its model faltered. Its collapse is a stark reminder that capital alone cannot rescue an economic model that loses money on every delivery.
Read more: shore.africa
