Episode 2: The “Banana” Company
Twiga's Journey to Making the Impossible Repeatable
The first time Twiga came into focus for me was in 2016 during a panel discussion at the Afrobytes* conference in Paris. Ibanga Umanah, Co-Founder of BraveLabs, explained how Twiga was fighting wastage in Kenya’s banana supply chain(s) using cold storage. Or, at least that’s what I recall. But even if the details are fuzzy, the feeling of admiration for a company tackling a real, tangible problem lingered.
Nearly ten years later, the tone around Twiga’s story has shifted. In 2024, it navigated a legal battle, worked to restructure the business, and replaced its CEO. Unfortunately, as the post-ZIRP era chill set in, stories like this became increasingly common in African tech. But beyond the very real headwinds that difficult macroeconomic conditions stir up, it’s difficult to parse the “business story” of a company from the outside looking in. Arguably, each journey is rooted in a sector logic that represents how the market is structured, how the players behave (and why), and what value is created and captured (or not).
From that perspective, my conversation with Kikonde Mwatela, Co-Founder and CEO of Exodus Mobility and former COO of Twiga, for Episode 3 of The Trajectory Africa’s digital commerce and logistics series, was a rare privilege. Deep in operations from the beginning, Kikonde could easily explain how Twiga was trying to add value to banana value chains, what cost structure and marketing challenges it faced, which core assumptions panned out, and which didn’t. And perhaps most importantly, what lessons to learn from Twiga’s journey (even as it continues).
Have a listen, and check out some highlights below.
*Afrobytes was a Paris-based platform to connect the African tech community with other global tech ecosystems, founded by the amazing Ammin Youssouf and Haweya Mohamed.
🧩 1. Build What Seems Impossible, Then Make It Repeatable
Kikonde suggested something counterintuitive yet powerful as a first principle: instead of starting with what's repeatable, begin with what seems impossible. Twiga’s success hinged on solving an overlooked, high-friction problem—ripening bananas for vendors—then scaling that solution. This flipped conventional startup wisdom and opened the door to real value creation.
“Find what is considered impossible, not necessarily repeatable. And then... figure out how to make it repeatable.”
🦷 2. Solve ‘Toothaches,’ Not ‘Vitamin Deficiencies’
Twiga's strategy focused on solving acute, painful problems—like unstable prices and working capital constraints—rather than nice-to-haves. By pre-ripening bananas, Twiga helped vendors reduce waste, improve cash flow, and offer a visually appealing product. This “toothache” approach cemented vendor loyalty and became core to Twiga’s value proposition.
“You should solve a toothache, not a vitamin deficiency... The toothache for our vendors was access to ready-to-sell products.”
🚚 3. Distribution Costs Are Tied to Revenue Assurance
The riskiest and most expensive part of the supply chain wasn’t warehousing or inbound logistics—it was last-mile distribution, which is highly sensitive to order fulfillment accuracy. Ensuring that every delivery leads to a validated, completed sale became a matter of survival.
“The cost of distribution is actually a function of just how much work has been done to close customers and keep them in your ecosystem.”
📈 4. Balance Supply and Demand for Scale
Twiga’s expansion into farming and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) wasn’t random—it was a response to scaling challenges. As the banana supply from farmers scaling up grew, the retail universe had to grow in parallel to absorb the output. This required expanding product lines (like oil and rice) to keep growing the retail side of the business.
“If [farmers] go from 5 acres to 50 acres, that production output is going to overwhelm your existing retail universe.”
💸🧠 5. Growth Requires the Right Kind of Capital—and People
Kikonde’s reflections on the type of investors Twiga brought in were instructive. While VCs fueled growth, the R&D and infrastructure side of the business needed patient capital. Similarly, as the company grew, the kind of talent needed shifted, especially in underinvested areas like marketing.
“Perhaps we should have thought more about how to accommodate different types of investors for different types of initiatives.”
That’s all from me, folks. I hope you picked up something useful. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!