French development finance institution Proparco has invested €150,000 in Kenya-based food-tech company Farm to Feed, backing efforts to reduce food waste while creating new income opportunities for farmers.
The investment highlights growing interest in African businesses developing commercial solutions to one of the continent’s most persistent agricultural challenges: significant amounts of food are lost before reaching consumers.
Farm to Feed works to connect farmers with buyers for surplus and imperfect produce that might otherwise go to waste. By creating a market for food that does not always meet conventional retail standards, the company seeks to improve farmers’ earnings while keeping more food within the supply chain.
For Kenya, where agriculture remains an important part of the economy and rural livelihoods, reducing post-harvest losses can have a significant impact. Produce can be lost because of oversupply, cosmetic standards, weak market connections, storage limitations or insufficient demand at the right time.
Technology-enabled marketplaces can help address some of these gaps by connecting supply with demand more efficiently.
Farm to Feed’s model effectively turns food waste into a commercial opportunity. Instead of treating surplus produce as a loss, farmers can potentially sell it to alternative buyers, while businesses gain access to produce that might otherwise never reach the market.
The approach also has an environmental dimension.
When food is wasted, the resources used to produce it—including land, water, energy and labour—are effectively wasted as well. Food that ends up decomposing can also contribute to greenhouse-gas emissions.
Reducing losses therefore has the potential to improve both economic efficiency and environmental outcomes.
Proparco’s investment is significant not necessarily because of its size, but because it signals institutional support for business models that combine commercial activity with measurable development impact.
Development finance institutions have increasingly looked toward African startups and growth-stage businesses as vehicles for addressing structural challenges. Investments in agricultural technology can help strengthen food systems while supporting private-sector innovation.
For Farm to Feed, additional capital can help strengthen its operations, expand its network of farmers and buyers, and potentially increase the volume of food redirected into productive markets.
Scaling, however, will require more than technology. Food supply chains are complex and depend on logistics, reliable demand, pricing and relationships between farmers and buyers. Building an efficient system across different regions can therefore require substantial operational capacity.
The opportunity remains considerable.
As Africa’s population grows and urbanisation accelerates, pressure on food systems will increase. At the same time, farmers need stronger access to markets and better ways to monetise their output.
Businesses such as Farm to Feed are approaching the problem from a different direction: rather than focusing only on producing more food, they are trying to ensure that more of what is already produced actually reaches consumers.
Proparco’s €150,000 investment therefore represents more than funding for a Kenyan food-tech company. It reflects a broader bet that technology, markets and private capital can work together to reduce agricultural waste, strengthen farmer incomes and build more resilient food systems.
The challenge now is turning that model into a scalable solution across Kenya and potentially other African markets.
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