Twiga Foods co-founder and CEO Peter Njonjo has quit the company’s board barely a month after the company announced he would be taking a sabbatical.
- •In mid-December, the B2B marketplace platform announced that Njonjo would be going on a 6-month sabbatical.
- •It has since become clear that it was in fact an exit, with a timeline of 6 months to give the board time to select a new CEO.
- •On December 18th, the company announced a new funding round worth $35 million led by Creadev and Juven, according to industry website Crunchbase.
“…the strategic direction and daily operations are now firmly in the hands of Juven and Creadev and there is little value I can add from this point on,” Njonjo wrote in a Jan 4 resignation letter. This development was first reported by Business Daily.
“I would like to resign as a Director of Twiga Holdings. As a Founder, I will remain a committed shareholder of Twiga,” he added.
Twiga Foods, one of the most funded startups on the continent, was founded in 2014 by Grant Brooke and Peter Njonjo.
- •Brooke led the company as CEO between 2013 and 2019, when he resigned and was replaced by Njonjo.
- •Njonjo had been until then the President of multinational Coca Cola in West Africa, and a non-executive director at Twiga Foods.
- •Brooke quit active management in early 2020, saying that “I think we’ve reached a point where my not being present won’t cause any disruption.”
In interviews with the publication, Njonjo added that the resignation meant he could now “…focus on other opportunities that will consume a significant amount of [] time in the short to medium term.” He also pointed out that he’d remain a significant shareholder; he is the third largest investor after VC firms Creadev and Juven.
The Bigger Picture
As funding for startups has been drying up, companies in need of funding to keep the lights on have found themselves in a bind. Where funding is available, investors now have the upper hand to dictate terms, which have included the resignation of top executives in several companies across the continent.
Developments at Twiga Foods, one of the most watched startups on the continent, are likely to have far-reaching consequences on the start up scene. On the face of it, they indicate the likely boardroom coups that could come with extensive outside investor funding, which could see founders edged out of day to day management.
A different perspective might be that the exit of founders from the upper decision-making layers of growing enterprises is a good sign, as it means the companies are now mature and require experienced, objective, managers and executives, for the benefit of all investors, including founders.