Releaf, a Lagos, Nigeria-based technology company that makes it easier for consumer goods manufacturers in Africa to access high-quality ingredients for their factories, raised $3.3m in Pre-Series A funding round.
The round was led by Samurai Incubate Africa, who re-invested after leading Releaf’s seed round, with participation from Consonance Investment Managers. Stephen Pagliuca (Chairman of Bain Capital) and Jeff Ubben (Board member at World Wildlife Fund and Founder of Inclusive Capital Partners) also invested.
Co-founded by Uzoma Ayogu (CTO) and Ikenna Nzewi (CEO), Releaf is a technology company that makes it easier for FMCG manufacturers in Africa to access high quality ingredients for their factories. Starting with sustainable oil palm in Nigeria, Releaf develops technology to enable decentralized purchasing and processing of raw crops to improve profitability and prevent post-harvest loss for a more climate-resilient future.
The company intends to use the funds to launch two new technologies:
- Kraken II – a portable version of its award-winning palm nut de-sheller, and
- SITE – a geospatial mapping application that informs the most profitable positioning of food processing assets.
The combination of Kraken II’s portability and SITE’s placement and route planning capabilities enables Releaf to target the best opportunities across Nigeria’s oil palm belt rather than being limited to sourcing crops within 100 kilometers of a fixed processing site like existing food processors.
Since launching in 2021, the company has used its supply chain technology to process more than 10 million kilograms of palm nuts and grown its monthly revenue 7X year on year. Releaf has also secured more than $100m in supply contracts from leading consumer goods manufacturers, including Presco, PZ Cussons, and more.
FinSMEs
09/01/2023