Afrigather Victory Farms, a Kenya-based aquaculture startup, has raised $35 million in a Collection B spherical. The startup says it is going to use the funding to finance the growth of its operations in Kenya and Rwanda and potential entry into Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania.
The Collection B spherical was led by Creadev and noticed participation from the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), DOB Fairness, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, and Hesabu Capital. The corporate’s founders and angel buyers, together with Joseph Rehmann, Steve Moran, Kamran Ahmad, and Hans den Bieman, additionally invested within the transaction.
Based in 2015 by Joseph Rehmann and Steve Moran, Victory Farms had raised $4 million in debt funding and $5 million in equity financing earlier than this spherical. The startup runs a farm for tilapia fish, and final week, President Ruto referred to as Victory Farms the fastest-growing aquaculture business in sub-Saharan Africa.
Victory Farms presently operates over 80 branches in East Africa and just lately expanded into Rwanda with Kivu Choice. The corporate can even launch its aqua-feed mill three way partnership, Samakgro, later this yr in Naivasha, which is able to allow the native procurement of 35,000 metric tons of feed components per yr.
Talking on the funding spherical, Joseph Rehmann, the startup’s CEO, mentioned, “The Collection B funding will allow Victory Farms to scale up our platform for sustainable, reasonably priced protein manufacturing and increase our meals print throughout the area—advancing our mission to construct the world’s most sustainable end-to-end protein platform that may nourish 2 billion Africans with reasonably priced, accessible, and wholesome meals.”
Victory Farms additionally claims to mitigate East Africa’s local weather change drawback. The startup estimates that, at its present capability, it’s stopping not less than 160 thousand metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by shifting shoppers to fish.
Rebecca Mincy, Funding Director at ARAF, mentioned, “ARAF helps smallholder farmers and aquaculture firms that prioritize Africa’s sustainable improvement objectives. Victory Farms is one other welcome addition to ARAF’s portfolio, the place firms use modern enterprise fashions to assist farmers adapt to local weather change.”
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