Twiga Foods, an E-commerce platform, has declared that its CEO, Peter Njonjo, is taking a sabbatical break to attend to personal matters following what he refers to as “an intense 2023.”
This announcement follows closely after a Nairobi court granted Twiga Food a four-month period to resolve its dispute with cloud services provider, Incentro Africa. Incentro Africa sought the liquidation of Twiga Foods due to unpaid debt amounting to KES 39 million. The court is scheduled to address the case on March 13, 2024.
During Mr. Njonjo’s absence, Laurent Gouault, Twiga’s COO, will lead the company’s operational and commercial functions, while Zuber Momoniat, the CFO, will oversee the finance and legal functions.
The board has expressed support for Njonjo’s decision to take a six-month break, following the recent undisclosed funding secured by the B2B supply platform from Creadev, Juven, TLcom Capital Partners, and DOB Equity.
Hein Pretorius, Chairman of Twiga, stated, “Following the successful capital raise, the board supports Peter’s decision to take a sabbatical and has full confidence in the capabilities of Twiga’s recently strengthened senior leadership team.”
Mr. Peter Njonjo will continue to serve on the board.
In 2023, Kenya’s most funded e-commerce firm experienced a tumultuous year, dealing with legal disputes, overdue debts, a funding shortage, and organizational restructuring. In response to challenging economic conditions, the company is implementing measures for sustainability, aiming to become a “lean, agile, cost-efficient organization,” as described by the former CEO.
Njonjo attributes the reduced funding available to Twiga to the 2023 “funding winter,” characterized by fewer funding rounds and diminished support for startups as international investors withdraw. Consequently, the company underwent a 40% cost-cutting restructuring plan, as explained by Mr. Njonjo during a media roundtable in August.
In August, the Agri-Tech company laid off a third of its permanent staff (283 employees) shortly after discontinuing the internal salesforce team. This shift in its sales model involves Twiga Foods opting for multiple independent sales agents.
