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- East Africa Foods has raised approximately $40m, including a $26m Series B equity round led by PIDG, to expand its food supply chain operations.
- The funding will support storage, processing, logistics and digital systems, with plans to strengthen operations in Tanzania and expand into Kenya.
- EAF currently works with 28,000+ smallholder farmers and 10,000+ urban retailers, while targeting 100,000 farmers through its expansion.
- The investment aims to tackle food losses, with up to 40% of food produced in Kenya and Tanzania reportedly lost before reaching consumers due to supply chain gaps.
East Africa Foods (EAF), a Tanzania-headquartered Agritech and food distribution company, has raised approximately $40 million to expand its physical and digital food supply chain infrastructure across East Africa, with plans to reach 100,000 smallholder farmers and reduce food waste across its network.
The funding includes a $26 million Series B equity round led by the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) through its InfraCo investment arm, alongside Oikocredit and FMO, the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank. Existing shareholders ARAF, Goodwell, Africa Eats and FINCA also reinvested, while debt funding from the Schmidt Family Foundation forms part of the broader capital raise.
EAF said the new capital will fund expanded processing, storage and logistics capacity, as well as the digital platform supporting its operations.
The company also plans to strengthen its presence in Tanzania and expand into Kenya.
The investment targets persistent weaknesses in East Africa’s agricultural supply chains, where up to 40% of food produced in Kenya and Tanzania is lost before reaching consumers, according to PIDG. The organisation attributes much of the loss to gaps in aggregation, grading, storage and reliable transport rather than production at farm level.
EAF currently sources produce directly from more than 28,000 registered smallholder farmers, aggregates, grades, stores and processes it before distributing it to more than 10,000 urban retailers. The company said it already cuts food loss by about one-third across its own network.
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The expansion will also include digital systems connecting farmers, branches and retailers, alongside training for smallholder farmers in climate-smart production.
(Read Also: NITDA Pushes Digital Solutions To Close Agricultural Extension Gap)
EAF expects up to 100,000 farmers, 45% of them women, to benefit from improved market access, more predictable incomes and greater climate resilience as the business expands.
The funding comes as investors become more cautious about capital-intensive African Agritech businesses.
AgFunder News reported on the same day that the recent administration of Kenya-based food distribution company Twiga Foods has intensified questions about how businesses combining technology with costly physical supply chains should be financed. It contrasted Twiga’s venture-capital-heavy expansion with EAF’s backing from development finance institutions and debt alongside equity.
EAF’s latest raise therefore puts both technology and physical infrastructure at the centre of its strategy to reduce food losses, strengthen farmer-to-market connections and build a more resilient food supply chain in East Africa.
