CAMEROON – Freshbag, an innovative digital platform in Cameroon that connects farmers and vendors to ensure a fair and reliable food supply network has clinched an investment from German firm GreenTec Capital Partners.
According to Green Tec, Freshbag buys produce from farmers and suppliers at fair market prices and dispatches the products to thousands of street vendors in cities across Cameroon.
To further strengthen the ecosystem, Freshbag is offering micro loans and technical assistance to partner farmers, distributors, and vendors.
Currently, the e-commerce company is operating in Yaoundé, working with more than 700 vendors and 2000 farmers in the area.
Moreover, Freshbag has been able to grow and manage a reliable and easily expandable network of distributors that will help extend their reach and widen the range of available products in the near future.
“Thanks to Greentec Partnership, we now have a real opportunity to go into growth mode, scale our operations and ultimately create a bigger impact for the millions of street vendors across Africa. A dream now closer to become a reality,” said Brice, CEO of Freshbag.
GreenTec Capital Partners is Germany’s premier investor into African start-ups and SMEs with a focus on combining social and environmental impact with financial success.
“Investing in Freshbag is straightforward for GreenTec Capital. Brice and his team succeeded in creating their platform and the ecosystem in a few months, bringing real added value for agriculture cooperatives and street vendors in Yaoundé.
“With our support we believe Freshbag will boost its presence in Cameroon and in western Africa,” said Xavier Chapel, Senior Company Builder at GreenTec Capital Partners.
The investment in the Cameroonian company comes months after GreenTec invested in Nigerian group-buying platform, Pricepally.
Pricepally, aggregates consumer food demand in urban cities and matching it with supplies directly from farmers and wholesalers.
The company also invested in Ecodudu, a Kenya-based waste-to-value company producing high-quality insect-based protein for animal feed and organic fertilizers from recycled organic matter.
Ecodudu has developed an innovative process that harnesses nature’s recycling agents, insects, to address global problems of unmet protein demand, organic waste management, and environmental conservation.
Leveraging the team’s more than 18 years’ experience in animal feed production, Ecodudu uses fly larvae to produce sustainable and highly nutritious proteins for animal feeds and organic fertilizers.
The fly larvae convert the organic waste into high-protein biomass and leaving behind a rich residue.
At the full-grown larvae stage, the flies are dried and provided in bulk to feed manufacturers for commercial use as the company’s signature Dudu Meal.
The residues are subsequently processed into organic fertilizer called Shamba Mix.
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