Over the past decades, Africa has been poised to be the breadbasket of the world, thanks to its food-producing potential. However, the continent has received a huge beating from the challenges of food waste and food loss, which have occasionally plunged the continent into food crises.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that a staggering 37% of food in Sub-Saharan Africa is lost or wasted from farm to fork. Farmers and other actors in the agricultural value chain suffer post-harvest food losses estimated to be worth over $4 billion every year. In Kenya, the food loss is estimated to be at 40% every year, disrupting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and causing malnutrition particularly among women and children. It is against this backdrop that Dominique Kavuisya, a Software Engineer, and his wife Joan Kavuisya co-founded Taimba in 2015.
Taimba connects smallholder farmers directly to retailers through its mobile-based cashless platform, enabling the farmers to access markets for their fresh produce while addressing the problem of food loss and food insecurity. Today, the platform has more than 4,500 smallholder farmers spread across 20 counties who find it convenient and cheaper to supply their fresh produce through Taimba.
To ensure Taimba sustains its growth trajectory and continues to create economic and environmental impact in the country, Kua Ventures has invested $75,000 (approximately Ksh. 9.7 million) into the business to ramp up the mobile platform and onboard more smallholder farmers who have perennially suffered post-harvest losses. The investment will also help the business in its quest to become more profitable and sustainable, and serve more customers across the country.
Reflecting on his experience during the fundraising period, Dominique said: “We were really impressed with how Kua Ventures engaged us as an equal partner and challenged our business model with the intent to add real value into what we do.”
Photo: Taimba Co-Founder Dominique Kavuisya (R) with vendor enlisted on the mobile platform.
He added: “Kua Ventures has given us an opportunity to grow our proven model as indigenous founders and solve our local problems. This kind of investment has been difficult to come by. As we impact our farmers and informal traders positively and digitize the supply chain in Africa, Kua Ventures will truly be at the heart of it.”
With the new investment by Kua Ventures, Taimba becomes the 23rd SME to join our growing portfolio of local businesses, following the footsteps of Savannah Space which secured our funding earlier in the year. The business also joins Soko Kijiji, Nyota Limited and Toolkit iSkills in our list of our portfolio of service and distribution businesses in the agriculture value chain.