Farm to Feed, a Kenyan agritech startup addressing food loss and farmer income challenges, has successfully raised $1.5 million in seed funding to expand operations across Kenya. The investment will enable the company to scale its innovative approach to creating reliable markets for surplus and imperfectly shaped produce that would otherwise go to waste.
The funding round comprises $1.27 million in equity and $230,000 in non-dilutive funding from DEG’s DeveloPPP Ventures programme, combining growth capital with development-focused support to maximize both commercial and social impact.
This significant investment validates Farm to Feed’s model of simultaneously addressing food waste, farmer livelihoods, and food security—three interconnected challenges that plague agricultural systems across Africa.
Investment Consortium Backing Farm to Feed
The equity portion of the round was led by Delta40 Venture Studio, a venture builder and investor focused on African startups solving critical challenges. Delta40’s leadership signals strong confidence in Farm to Feed’s team, business model, and potential for scalable impact across Kenya and potentially the broader East African region.
The round attracted participation from an impressive consortium of impact-focused investors:
DRK Foundation: A philanthropic foundation supporting social entrepreneurs addressing poverty and inequality through market-based solutions.
Catalyst Fund: An inclusive fintech accelerator and investor supporting startups that improve financial health for underserved populations, demonstrating Farm to Feed’s fintech dimensions in farmer payments and financial inclusion.
Holocene: A climate-focused venture fund investing in startups addressing environmental challenges, recognizing Farm to Feed’s role in reducing food waste and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Marula Square: An impact investment firm supporting African entrepreneurs building sustainable businesses with measurable social outcomes.
54Co: A venture capital firm backing African startups with strong growth potential and positive social impact.
Levare Ventures: An early-stage investor supporting entrepreneurs building transformative businesses across emerging markets.
Mercy Corps Ventures: The impact investment arm of Mercy Corps, focused on startups addressing humanitarian challenges and supporting vulnerable populations.
This diverse investor base brings complementary expertise spanning agriculture, technology, climate, financial inclusion, and social impact—all critical dimensions of Farm to Feed’s mission.
DEG’s DeveloPPP Ventures Programme
The $230,000 in non-dilutive funding from DEG’s DeveloPPP Ventures programme represents a strategic complement to the equity investment. DEG, the German development finance institution, provides this funding without taking equity stakes, preserving founder ownership while supporting specific development objectives.
DeveloPPP Ventures typically supports:
- Partnerships with smallholder farmers and rural communities
- Capacity building and training initiatives
- Infrastructure development that benefits underserved populations
- Demonstration of scalable development impact alongside commercial viability
This funding structure enables Farm to Feed to invest in community-facing initiatives that generate long-term value but may not yield immediate financial returns, strengthening the company’s social impact while building sustainable commercial operations.
The Founding Team: Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs
Farm to Feed was founded in 2021 by three women entrepreneurs committed to transforming Africa’s food systems: CEO Claire Van Enk, Anouk Boertien, and Zara Benosa.
Diverse Expertise for Complex Challenges
While specific backgrounds aren’t detailed, the founding team’s composition suggests a powerful combination of:
- Agricultural expertise: Understanding farming realities, supply chain dynamics, and post-harvest challenges
- Business acumen: Building scalable commercial models that work in African market contexts
- Technology capability: Leveraging digital tools to create efficiency in traditionally fragmented markets
- Impact orientation: Maintaining focus on measurable improvements in farmer livelihoods and food security
The team’s female leadership is notable in Africa’s agritech sector, which remains predominantly male-dominated despite agriculture’s critical role in women’s economic participation across the continent.
Three Years of Traction
Since founding in 2021, Farm to Feed has spent three years proving its model, building relationships with farmers and buyers, developing operational systems, and demonstrating unit economics—the foundation necessary to attract substantial seed investment.
This traction period allowed the team to:
- Validate demand from both farmers (supply side) and buyers (demand side)
- Refine operations and logistics to ensure product quality and reliability
- Build trust within farming communities often skeptical of intermediaries
- Demonstrate measurable impact on farmer incomes and food waste reduction
- Develop technology systems supporting efficient operations at scale
Understanding Africa’s Food Loss Challenge
Farm to Feed addresses a critical inefficiency in Africa’s agricultural systems: massive post-harvest losses occurring between farm and consumer, alongside persistently low smallholder farmer incomes.
The Scale of Food Loss
Across Africa, estimates suggest 30-50% of food produced never reaches consumers, lost at various points in the supply chain:
Post-harvest handling: Inadequate storage, processing, and packaging lead to spoilage, pest damage, and quality degradation immediately after harvest.
Transportation: Poor road infrastructure, lack of refrigerated transport, and long distances between farms and markets result in significant losses during transit.
Market rejection: Stringent cosmetic standards mean perfectly nutritious produce is rejected due to size, shape, or appearance imperfections.
Lack of buyers: Smallholder farmers often lack reliable market access, particularly for surplus production beyond what local markets can absorb.
Price volatility: Dramatic price fluctuations discourage proper post-harvest investment, as farmers fear losses if prices drop before they can sell.
This food loss represents an enormous economic, nutritional, and environmental tragedy—wasted farmer labor, lost nutrition for food-insecure populations, and unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing organic matter.
Smallholder Farmer Income Challenges
Compounding the food loss problem, smallholder farmers—who produce most of Africa’s food—face persistently low and unpredictable incomes due to:
Limited market access: Most smallholders lack connections to formal markets, urban buyers, or processors willing to purchase their produce reliably.
Price exploitation: Without alternatives, farmers often sell to middlemen offering exploitative prices, capturing minimal value from their labor.
No pricing power: Fragmentation means individual farmers cannot negotiate favorable terms, accepting whatever buyers offer.
Post-harvest losses: Anticipated losses force farmers to accept low prices for quick sales rather than risk spoilage waiting for better offers.
Surplus waste: Bumper harvests that should increase farmer income instead depress local prices and result in unsold surplus rotting in fields.
These interconnected challenges trap millions of African smallholder farmers in poverty despite producing food that urban populations desperately need.
Farm to Feed’s Innovative Solution
Farm to Feed has developed an integrated approach that simultaneously addresses food loss, farmer income, and market efficiency challenges.
Creating Markets for Imperfect and Surplus Produce
At the core of Farm to Feed’s model is creating reliable markets for produce categories typically rejected or wasted:
Imperfectly shaped produce: Fruits and vegetables that don’t meet cosmetic standards for premium retail markets but remain perfectly nutritious and safe.
Surplus production: Excess harvest volumes beyond what local markets can absorb, which would otherwise be sold at depressed prices or left to spoil.
Off-grade produce: Products slightly below top quality grades due to minor blemishes, size variations, or ripeness timing but still valuable for processing or alternative uses.
By creating demand for these categories, Farm to Feed transforms waste into income for farmers while creating affordable food supply for buyers.
The Business Model
While specific operational details aren’t provided, Farm to Feed likely operates through a model involving:
Farmer aggregation: Working with networks of smallholder farmers to aggregate sufficient volumes for commercial buyers.
Quality standards: Establishing clear, accessible quality criteria that accept produce rejected elsewhere while maintaining food safety and usability.
Logistics and collection: Organizing collection from farms, potentially through collection centers or mobile purchasing, reducing transportation burdens on farmers.
Market linkages: Connecting aggregated produce with buyers including food processors, manufacturers, institutional buyers, and potentially retail channels focused on affordable food.
Technology platform: Using digital tools to manage farmer relationships, coordinate logistics, facilitate payments, and track impact metrics.
Fair pricing: Offering farmers better prices than they’d receive from traditional middlemen or local markets, while still providing buyers with cost-effective supply.
Multiple Value Propositions
Farm to Feed creates value for multiple stakeholders:
For farmers:
- Reliable market for produce that would otherwise be wasted
- Better prices than distress sales or middlemen
- Reduced post-harvest losses improving overall farm economics
- Predictable purchasing reducing market uncertainty
For buyers:
- Access to affordable, reliable produce supply
- Cost savings compared to premium-grade produce for applications where appearance doesn’t matter
- Supply chain reliability through organized aggregation
- Potential sustainability credentials from reducing food waste
For society:
- Reduced food waste and associated environmental impacts
- Improved food security through better utilization of production
- Enhanced farmer livelihoods supporting rural economic development
- More efficient food systems reducing costs throughout the supply chain
How the $1.5M Will Be Deployed
The seed funding will support several strategic priorities as Farm to Feed scales operations:
Geographic Expansion
Capital will enable Farm to Feed to expand beyond its initial operational areas to serve more farmers and reach new buyer markets across Kenya. This includes:
- Establishing operations in additional agricultural regions
- Building collection infrastructure and logistics networks
- Recruiting and training field staff
- Developing relationships with new farmer cooperatives and groups
Technology Development
Investment in technology infrastructure will improve operational efficiency:
- Mobile applications for farmer engagement and produce tracking
- Logistics optimization systems
- Quality control and traceability capabilities
- Payment processing and financial record-keeping
- Data analytics for demand forecasting and supply planning
Farmer Network Growth
Scaling the farmer network requires:
- Field team expansion to provide training and support
- Demonstration activities showing income benefits to attract participants
- Partnership development with farmer cooperatives and agricultural extension services
- Financial literacy and business skills training for farmers
Market Development
Expanding the buyer base includes:
- Business development efforts targeting food processors, manufacturers, and institutional buyers
- Product development creating new uses for rescued produce
- Marketing and brand building around rescued food and farmer impact
- Partnership development with food service, catering, and potentially retail channels
Working Capital
Agricultural businesses require significant working capital to:
- Purchase produce from farmers with timely payments
- Manage inventory during transportation and sale processes
- Bridge timing gaps between farmer payments and buyer collections
- Handle seasonal fluctuations in production and demand
The Broader Agritech Context in Kenya
Farm to Feed operates within Kenya’s dynamic agritech ecosystem, which has attracted significant investment in recent years as entrepreneurs and investors recognize agriculture’s potential for technology-enabled transformation.
Kenya’s Agritech Landscape
Kenya has emerged as an African agritech hub with numerous startups addressing challenges including:
- Input supply: Companies like Twiga Foods connecting farmers with agricultural inputs
- Market access: Platforms linking farmers directly with buyers
- Financial services: Fintechs providing credit, insurance, and payments for farmers
- Advisory services: Digital extension services providing farming advice
- Supply chain logistics: Solutions optimizing agricultural transportation and storage
This ecosystem maturity benefits Farm to Feed through:
- Established investor community understanding agricultural opportunities
- Talent pool with agritech experience
- Infrastructure including mobile money for farmer payments
- Policy frameworks increasingly supportive of agricultural innovation
- Demonstration effects from successful agritech exits validating the sector
Food Loss as Investment Priority
Food loss reduction has gained prominence as an investment theme globally, with climate-focused investors recognizing that:
- Food waste contributes approximately 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions
- Reducing waste is more efficient than producing additional food
- Food loss reduction simultaneously addresses climate, nutrition, and economic development
- Technologies and business models reducing waste offer strong commercial returns alongside impact
Farm to Feed’s positioning at this intersection of climate action, food security, and farmer livelihoods makes it attractive to the diverse investor base represented in this funding round.
Impact Potential and Metrics
While specific impact metrics aren’t provided, Farm to Feed likely tracks several key performance indicators demonstrating both commercial success and social impact:
Farmer Impact
- Number of smallholder farmers participating in network
- Average income increase per farmer compared to alternative sales channels
- Volume of produce purchased that would otherwise be wasted
- Percentage of farmer production sold through Farm to Feed
- Farmer retention and satisfaction rates
Food System Impact
- Total volume of food rescued from waste
- Greenhouse gas emissions avoided through waste reduction
- Nutritional value preserved for consumption
- Price reductions for buyers accessing rescued produce
- Jobs created across operations and logistics
Business Metrics
- Revenue growth and unit economics
- Gross margins on produce transactions
- Customer (buyer) acquisition and retention
- Geographic expansion and market penetration
- Operational efficiency improvements
Challenges and Risk Factors
Despite its promising model and strong backing, Farm to Feed faces several challenges common to agritech ventures:
Agricultural Complexity
- Weather and climate variability affecting production volumes and quality
- Seasonal fluctuations creating peaks and troughs in supply
- Pest and disease outbreaks impacting farmer production
- Input availability affecting farmer capacity to produce
Logistics Challenges
- Poor rural road infrastructure complicating collection
- Lack of cold chain infrastructure for perishable produce
- High transportation costs eroding margins
- Quality degradation during transport and handling
Market Development
- Building reliable buyer relationships and demand forecasts
- Competing with established supply chains and relationships
- Educating buyers about the value of rescued produce
- Managing inventory and preventing waste within own operations
Financial Management
- Managing working capital requirements in cash-constrained environment
- Balancing farmer payment timing with buyer payment terms
- Maintaining profitability while offering farmers fair prices
- Scaling without compromising unit economics
Farmer Relations
- Building trust in communities skeptical of intermediaries
- Managing farmer expectations around pricing and volumes
- Providing consistent purchasing even during low-production periods
- Competing with traditional buyers and established relationships
The seed funding provides runway to navigate these challenges while refining operations and proving scalability.
What’s Next for Farm to Feed
With $1.5 million in fresh capital, Farm to Feed enters an exciting growth phase with several key priorities:
Operational Excellence
Refining operations in existing markets to achieve strong unit economics, operational efficiency, and measurable impact—building the foundation for sustainable scale.
Geographic Expansion
Carefully expanding to new agricultural regions and buyer markets across Kenya, testing model portability and building national presence.
Technology Enhancement
Investing in digital infrastructure that improves efficiency, enables data-driven decision-making, and creates defensible competitive advantages.
Impact Demonstration
Rigorously measuring and documenting impact on farmers, food waste reduction, and food security to attract additional impact capital and development partnerships.
Team Building
Recruiting operational, technical, and commercial talent capable of executing aggressive growth plans while maintaining quality and impact.
Series A Preparation
Using seed capital to achieve milestones that position Farm to Feed for a substantial Series A round enabling regional expansion beyond Kenya.
Regional Expansion Potential
While initially focused on Kenya, Farm to Feed’s model addresses challenges present across East Africa and indeed much of the continent. Future expansion opportunities include:
Tanzania: Large agricultural sector with similar smallholder challenges and growing urban markets.
Uganda: Significant agricultural production with limited market access for smallholders.
Rwanda: High government prioritization of agricultural value addition and food security.
Ethiopia: Massive agricultural sector with substantial food loss challenges.
The funding provides resources to prove and refine the model in Kenya before attempting regional expansion, a sequencing strategy that reduces risk while building capabilities for multi-country operations.
Contribution to SDGs and Climate Goals
Farm to Feed’s work directly contributes to multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
SDG 1 (No Poverty): Improving smallholder farmer incomes supports poverty reduction in rural communities.
SDG 2 (Zero Hunger): Reducing food loss improves food availability and affordability, supporting food security.
SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth): Creating reliable income opportunities for farmers and employment across operations.
SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): Reducing food waste and improving supply chain efficiency.
SDG 13 (Climate Action): Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from food waste and improving agricultural sustainability.
This multi-SDG impact positions Farm to Feed to access development finance, impact capital, and potentially climate finance as the company scales.
The Female-Founded Advantage
Farm to Feed’s female founding team deserves particular recognition in Africa’s male-dominated agritech sector. Research consistently shows that female-founded startups:
- Are more likely to employ women, creating inclusive economic opportunities
- Often focus on social impact alongside financial returns
- Bring different perspectives to problem-solving and product development
- Face greater funding challenges, making this seed round particularly significant
The diverse investor base supporting Farm to Feed’s female founders signals growing recognition that inclusive investment strategies generate both better returns and broader impact.
