Brands/Products
Kyosk Acquires KwikBasket for Efficient Distribution of Fresh Produce
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A prominent player in the agricultural industry in Africa, KwikBasket, has been acquired by digital-first and data-led distribution platform, Kyosk Digital Services.
The Kenyan firm was taken over by Kyosk as part of its expansion into the African fresh produce market with the launch of its Farm & Fresh line of business.
KwikBasket is reputed for its expertise in the distribution of agricultural produce and for providing valuable services and solutions to farmers, commercial kitchens, and other stakeholders in the food chain.
Kyosk specialises in online retail distribution and is driven by a digital-first approach and data-driven insights. It aims to transform the distribution and accessibility of goods and services in Africa through innovative solutions.
By connecting businesses, consumers, and suppliers, Kyosk.App facilitates seamless transactions and enhances overall efficiency in the supply chain.
With the launch of Farm & Fresh, Kyosk combines its digital-first approach and large-scale operations with KwikBasket’s agricultural expertise to transform the African fresh produce market, creating a more efficient and inclusive ecosystem.
In many regions on the African continent, farmers face numerous challenges due to fragmented and inefficient distribution chains for agricultural produce.
Farmers often struggle to reach end-consumers, leading to significant production losses, low income, wastage, and high food prices.
Kyosk’s Fresh line offers farmers access to improved yields, consistent market access, fair pricing, essential information and insights, and agri-inputs. By empowering farmers with these resources, Kyosk seeks to support farmers’ growth and success in the agricultural sector.
Additionally, Kyosk Fresh will cater to the needs of restaurants, eateries, and other customers by providing a consistent supply of a wide variety of high-quality products.
Kitchens and eateries often face several challenges due to long lead times in the supply chain. Some of these key challenges include food safety and quality concerns, food wastage, high logistics costs, and delays in fulfilling customer orders.
Through streamlined processes, optimised logistics, and enhanced inventory management, Kyosk Farm & Fresh can reduce many of these obstacles. This will enable kitchens and eateries to maintain stability and competitiveness in terms of pricing while ensuring food safety, transparency, and traceability throughout the supply chain.
As part of the launch of the Farm & Fresh line of business, the uLima digital platform will be rebranded to Kyosk Farm. uLima was a platform that provided farmers with quality inputs, localised market information, and market linkage.
Kyosk Farm will now build upon the foundation of uLima, leveraging its existing features and functionality while enhancing the overall user experience. For farmers, Kyosk Farm will offer improved yields by providing access to information, insights, and agri-inputs, such as fertilisers, and financing. It will enable farmers to connect with consistent market access and fair pricing, ensuring sustainable income and growth opportunities for their businesses.
“This acquisition marks a major milestone for Kyosk as we broaden our footprint in the fresh produce market in Africa and enhance our offering to cater to the needs of farmers, retailers, kitchens, eateries, and other consumers.
“With KwikBasket’s extensive expertise and resources, we are strategically positioned to unlock the full potential of farming in Africa and create a fair and efficient marketplace that benefits all stakeholders in the food chain.
“This expansion presents a unique opportunity for Kyosk to leverage its digital-first and data-led distribution platform to revolutionise the way fresh produce is sourced, distributed, and enjoyed in Africa,” the co-founder of Kyosk, Raphael Afaedor, said.
The African retail market is valued at approximately $600 billion and is projected to grow at a rate of 5 per cent to 6 per cent annually.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
An institutional investor, First Ally Capital, has strengthened a leading Nigerian financial technology company, Mathesis Analytics, to scale its proprietary credit decisioning infrastructure.
It made this possible by injecting fresh capital into the firm, which specialises in AI-powered credit decisioning infrastructure, an action that will directly support the growth and scaling of Mathesis’ core mission of providing the intelligence and infrastructure needed to bridge the credit gap for millions of unscored or underscored individuals across Nigeria.
With this investment, Mathesis will enable financial institutions to confidently assess and extend credit to borrowers who lack a formal credit history by leveraging an expanded pool of alternative behavioural and transactional data.
To date, Mathesis’ systems have supported more than 8 million loans for over 2 million unique borrowers in Nigeria, and the company is actively deploying its infrastructure to establish a growing pan-African footprint.
With the investment from First Ally Capital, Mathesis is well positioned to transform how the credit ecosystem operates, driving financial inclusion in partnership with lenders across the continent.
A significant barrier to credit access in Nigeria, which prides itself on being Africa’s largest economy, is data fragmentation. Borrowers frequently build positive financial behaviours across multiple digital platforms by repaying microfinance loans, saving through fintech wallets, or servicing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) facilities.
However, under traditional credit infrastructure, these achievements remain invisible to new lenders.
Mathesis addresses this challenge through the concept of Personal Equity—the quantified expression of an individual’s financial behaviour aggregated across every institution with which they have transacted.
By translating these disparate signals into a precise, portable measure of creditworthiness, Mathesis creates a comprehensive credit identity that reflects the full breadth of a person’s financial life.
“True financial inclusion cannot be achieved in a vacuum; it requires structural collaboration in which lenders and fintech companies work as partners within the ecosystem.
“This investment from First Ally Capital validates our approach to reshaping credit infrastructure. By quantifying Personal Equity, we empower lenders to safely look beyond the constraints of formal credit histories and recognise a borrower’s true creditworthiness. This capital enables us to accelerate our pan-African expansion while maintaining the robust, institutional-grade infrastructure our partners rely on,” the chief executive of Mathesis Analytics, Winston Osuchukwu, stated.
On his part, the chief executive of First Ally Capital, Mr Ebenezer Olufowose, said, “At First Ally Capital, we pride ourselves on being a one-stop destination for financial solutions, offering a diverse portfolio of services ranging from investment banking and asset management to trusteeship, inclusive banking, and real estate.
“Our investment in Mathesis Analytics reflects our strong belief in the company’s vision and our commitment to supporting forward-thinking enterprises that deliver excellence.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The chief executive of Canal+ Africa, Mr David Mignot, has disclosed that MultiChoice is now fully integrated into the media group.
Mr Mignot disclosed this via a statement issued on Thursday, noting that this development marks a new phase in the evolution of one of Africa’s leading pay television operators.
He noted that the integration positions MultiChoice within a global media organisation with an extensive international footprint.
“MultiChoice is now a full subsidiary of a truly international media group operating in 70 countries. The group was founded in France, is listed in London and Johannesburg, and has a strong African presence with operations in more than 45 countries,” Mr Mignot said.
The statement underscores the scale of the combined business, highlighting Canal+’s global reach alongside its significant investments across Africa.
The completion of the transaction is expected to strengthen MultiChoice’s position in the African media and entertainment market by giving it access to the broader resources, expertise and international capabilities of the Canal+ Group, while reinforcing the group’s commitment to the continent.
MultiChoice operates across sub-Saharan Africa through platforms including DStv and GOtv, serving millions of subscribers with entertainment, sports and news content.
By Adedapo Adesanya
FoodCourt, a Nigerian cloud kitchen startup backed by Y Combinator, has suspended operations after months of unpaid salaries and mounting debts to vendors triggered a staff strike and forced the company to halt customer orders, according to a report by TechCabal.
The publication reported that customers first noticed on March 4 that they could no longer place orders through the FoodCourt app after the company disabled ordering as kitchen workers, delivery personnel and branch staff embarked on strike over unpaid wages. The company also owed outstanding payments to vendors.
By April 19, FoodCourt had temporarily shut its last operating branch after suspending activities across its Lagos and Abuja locations while seeking fresh funding and restructuring the business, according to the report.
The company’s chief executive, Mr Henry Nneji, said the decision to pause operations was not caused by a single issue but by a combination of operational, organisational and working-capital challenges.
“It’s important to clarify that the decision to pause operations wasn’t driven by one single issue. We reached a point where it became clear that continuing to patch those issues while operating wasn’t the right long-term decision,” he said.
“The objective is to build a stronger business than the one that existed before the suspension. We fully intend to bring FoodCourt back,” he added in an emailed response.
The company acknowledged outstanding obligations to employees, vendors, riders and service providers, but declined to disclose the number of affected workers or the total amount owed. It said efforts were underway to resolve the liabilities as part of its restructuring process.
It was also reported that the startup’s financial difficulties worsened after expansion into additional locations increased operating costs, while its cloud kitchen model came under pressure from rising labour, logistics, food and marketing expenses.
Despite the shutdown, Mr Nneji said FoodCourt intends to relaunch after completing its restructuring, adding that the company believes demand for its products remains strong.
Founded in 2021 by Henry Nneji and Paul Adokiye Iruene, FoodCourt operates cloud kitchens under multiple virtual restaurant brands through its consumer app. According to TechCabal, the startup had previously disclosed raising $1.7 million, delivering more than one million meals and reaching $4.3 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2024.
