Twiga Foods
Description
B2B e-commerce and food logistics platform founded in 2014 that connects small producers with urban retailers (dukas) in Kenya, paying farmers more than middlemen do and settling payments via mobile money. After multiple rounds of layoffs (2022-2024), in May-June 2025 it cut more than 300 jobs, created a holding company (NewCo) and temporarily suspended its operations in Nairobi (2 months, with resumption expected around August 2025) to relocate its hub and pivot to an asset-light FMCG model.
Lessons learned
Venture capital-funded overexpansion, capital-intensive in-house logistics operations and weak customer purchasing power can make an inclusive market model unsustainable; tying the social promise to a high cash burn exposes small producers and suppliers when the cuts arrive. Lesson: market-based social innovation needs healthy unit economics before scaling, not after.