Jumia and Twiga foods have partnered to provide fresh produce delivery services in Kenya, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic.
Nairobi based Twiga Foods will leverage on $30 million (approximately Ksh3 billion) raised during series B round in October 2019. Jumia and Twiga will also rely on venture capital from the U.S investment Bank, Goldman Sachs, in the new establishment.
The partnership will see Jumia sell Twiga’s fresh produce on its ecommerce website. Using Jumia’s delivery fleet, the produce will be picked up from Twiga’s sorting and distribution site and delivered to the customer contact-free. The transaction will be cash only, using JumiaPay app from Jumia according to Jumia Kenya CEO, Sam Chappatte.
Read: Kenya’s Twiga Foods Banks On Ksh3 billion Booster To Expand To West Africa
Twiga foods was founded in Kenya in 2014 by Peter Njonjo and Grant Brooke. The company aims to connect the produce from Kenya’s farmers to pricing and market places more efficiently. The company currently serves about 3,000 outlets per day with a network of 17,000 farmers and 8,000 vendors.
According to Jumia CEO, Twiga will benefit from Jumia’s B2C ecommerce website and Jumia from Twiga’s B2B produce network.
The partnership has come at an opportune time when the country has been hit by the Corona-virus pandemic, with most people staying at home.
Kenya currently has 396 confirmed cases and 17 deaths with 144 recoveries so far.
Since going public in April 2019, the company (Jumia) has faced a lot of pressure to demonstrate its profitability.
Read: Jumia Closes Shop In Rwanda Days After Exiting Cameroon, Tanzania
Continued losses, employee fraud scandal in 2019, and a short sell assault led the company’s share price to plummet to less than 50 percent since the IPO, from $14.50 to $4.43 as of last week.
Jumia has struggled through these events and the co-CEO Sacha Poignonnec pointed at a bright spot in 2019. The company announced a gross profit of $1.0 million (approximately Ksh100 million) after deducting expenses in Q4 of 2019.
The next earnings call is set for May 13, 2020.
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