Twiga Foods Head of Legal and Administration Daniel Ngugi has resigned from the Kenyan e-commerce startup days after the company’s CEO and Founder Peter Njonjo opted to quit.
On Monday on LinkedIn, Ngugi announced his departure from the cash-strapped startup company that he joined 10 years ago in the same capacity as one of its initial employees.
“The 4th of January 2024 marked my last day at Twiga Foods, an organization that was my home for a decade, 8 years of which were on a full-time basis,” announced Ngugi.
He added, “I was privileged to join the company from its inception when it was idea being bounced between Peter Njonjo and Grant Brooke, and as I exit, I leave behind an organization that has touched countless lives, transformed the B2B e-commerce space in Kenya and the larger region, and tested the limits of what is possible.”
Ngugi’s exit announcement comes only days following the resignation of Twiga Foods founder and CEO Njonjo in what is perceived as a takeover of the firm by its top investors.
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This also comes barely a month after Yebeltal Getachew, who led the startup’s East Africa business, also quit amid speculations they were pushed out to pave way for key reforms.
In his reflective post, Ngugi said his decade-long stint at the B2B platform shaped his career.
“Twiga changed my perspective on what the role of an in-house legal counsel ought to be and gave me excellent insights on how external counsels in general should support organizations,” he intimated.
Njonjo, who steered the firm he co-founded with Grant Brooke in 2013, resigned as the CEO on December 14 2023, and stepped down from the Board of Directors on January 5, 2024.
In his letter of resignation, Njonjo had thrown his weight behind a leadership transition at the company, saying it is necessary to build on key accomplishments made during his term.
The exit of key employees from the firm comes weeks after Njonjo announced that he was proceeding on a six-month sabbatical after securing a USD35 million fresh funding round.
Twiga Foods operations are now purely in the hands of its foreign shareholders, Creadev and Juven, as they seek to help the agritech startup firm to settle huge debts owed to vendors.
In November 2023, Twiga Foods secured fresh funding from Creadev, Juven, DOB Equity and TLcom Capital Partners, investors who took part in the 2021 round that netted $50 million.
