Agri-tech Startup Twiga Lays off Over 211 Workers

Twiga has laid off 211 employees after Sendy sent home 20 percent of its workforce and with many startups closing shop.

The agri-tech startup, co-founded by Peter Njonjo and Grant Brooke in 2014, is the latest firm to cut its workforce due to a downturn in venture capital funding.

The 20 percent of the more than 1,000 employees who were laid off worked mainly in Kenya, where the firm connects farmers or agricultural producers, manufacturers of fast-moving items, and merchants.

Njonjo, the CEO and co-founder of the agri-tech, said the company’s fired trade development representatives had the choice of joining it as independent contractors, earning money based on the number of clients they bring in and the number of sales they generate.

“Twiga recently launched a new optimised sales agents’ programme where current Trade Development Representatives (TDRs) will transition from permanent employees into independent agents on a 100 per cent commission basis,” Njonjo said.

Twiga added that the transition of the TDRs was made in accordance with labour laws and that the impacted staff were given the first right of refusal to transition to the new model.

In addition to signing up vendors, the representatives handled customer service, market research, and product promotion to customers. The agents in the current proposal will perform comparable tasks.

According to reports, Twiga has reduced worker travel reimbursements as part of its cost-cutting efforts.

The business claims that by the end of the first quarter of the following year, it will have generated 1,000 opportunities using the agent model.

“This transformation opens up a business opportunity for former sales agents and the general public. The advantage of this change is that it makes it possible for agents to earn more money depending on their initiative and hard work,” Njonjo said.

These modifications occur exactly one year after Twiga raised $50 million in a Series C round of funding to scale up operations in Kenya and the surrounding nations.