Kenya: Victory Farms raises $5m
Victory Farms announced a $5 million fundraise led by DOB Equity, the Dutch-based growth equity funder, and Ed Brakeman, senior managing director at Bain Capital. The funding will support the company’s continued growth in Kenya, and expansion into new countries in the East Africa region.
Victory Farms was founded in 2015. Today it operates as a vertically integrated business, with its own hatchery, nursery ponds and deep-water cages in Lake Victoria, plus a processing plant and a cold chain and distribution network comprising 50+ wholly-owned retail branch locations.
Its direct customers are 15,000+ market women who buy fish from Victory Farms’ outlets, before cooking and selling them to end consumers. The model is empowered by M-Pesa, Kenya’s leading mobile payment system, enabling a completely cash-free commercial operation based in informal markets across the country.
The company has developed its own proprietary tilapia production model, which amalgamates and localises technology from around the globe. Based on a tech-enabled platform that is scaling rapidly, the company’s vision is to become the most sustainable aquaculture platform globally. It aims to achieve this through two key deliverables: (1) Increasing biodiversity of land and water ecosystems wherever it operates and (2) becoming the first carbon negative fish platform in the world.
Victory Farms’ founder and chief executive officer, Joseph Rehmann said, “We’re excited to announce this latest funding round led by a regional powerhouse (DOB Equity) and esteemed global investors (Ed Brakeman). The funding comes in the backdrop of Victory Farms transitioning from a found-led venture to a professionally managed enterprise across multiple geographies and lake systems. We are excited to continue our growth momentum in the last 6 years and continue building a white protein platform in East Africa.”
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