Victory Farms, an East African tilapia company, has completed a successful $35 million Series B funding round led by Creadev, a global VC and growth equity evergreen investor controlled by the Mulliez Family. Other investors include the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund, DOB Equity, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, and Hesabu Capital. The company’s founders and angel investors also invested in the transaction. The funding will be used to expand the company’s operations in Kenya and Rwanda, and potentially into Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania.
Victory Farms provides a climate-smart, profitable, and scalable solution to Africa’s nutritional security challenges. The East African fish supply deficit is one of the greatest supply-demand imbalances in the global food system today, with regional governments estimating a supply gap of 1 million tonnes of fish per annum. Aquaculture currently supplies just 3 percent of the deficit. Victory Farms presents a scalable solution to East Africa’s nutritional security challenge.
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Tilapia is the most environmentally and financially efficient protein solution for Africa, with a feed conversion ratio five times lower than beef. Investment in sustainable African aquaculture can help reduce reliance on imports and provide food for millions of people while supporting the local agriculture industry. The Series B funding will enable the production of 100 million high-quality protein meals for East Africans annually and will create thousands more direct, stable employment opportunities. It will also enable tens of thousands more small, female-led fish mongers at local markets, often known as mama samakis.
The company’s products have a direct impact on the region’s climate change mitigation agenda, with farmed tilapia emitting just 1.5 kg of carbon dioxide per kilogram, three times lower than the next best animal protein (poultry), and 30 times lower than beef. Victory Farms estimates that at its current capacity, it can avoid at least 160,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by shifting consumers to fish.
“Investing in the production of affordable and sustainable protein, where farmers increase their income and reduce their income volatility, is at the core of ARAF’s investment thesis, and we are delighted to support VF’s growth in Africa,” said Tamer El-Raghy, managing director of ARAF.
The Series B funding will also allow Victory Farms to launch its aqua-feed mill joint venture, Samakgro, later this year. The feed mill, which is under construction in Naivasha, will operate fully on renewable energy and create more than 40,000 jobs in regional agriculture. Victory Farms’ co-founders, Joseph Rehmann and Steve Moran, first drafted the business plan eight years ago to bring their expertise in business operations and aquaculture to Kenya. Since then, they have built the fastest-growing tilapia platform in East Africa, with more than 80 branches serving tens of thousands of customers daily.
“We believe that Victory Farms has an instrumental role to play in meeting the demand potential for affordable quality protein meals and the potential to become a pan African champion of access to food for the many,” said Pierre Fauvet, managing director Africa at Creadev.
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“We are delighted to support Victory Farms, the largest end-to-end white protein solution in Kenya and a key driver of climate-smart growth in the food sector across the region,” added Tom Rostand, investment director Africa at Creadev. The company’s strong track record in Western Kenya demonstrates this suppressed demand potential: fish consumption increased four-fold in the town of Rongo after supply had been made available. Victory Farms presents a compelling solution to East Africa’s nutritional security challenges and catalyzes growth across the region.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard