The Challenge
Founded by an American, woman entrepreneur, Tomato Jos grows and processes tomatoes, maize, and soya in Nigeria. The company uses best practices in agriculture and food processing, coupled with local market expertise, to replace bulk tomato imports with better quality, locally-processed products. Tomato Jos provides smallholder farmers with the tools to make long-term, sustainable improvements across the entire farming value chain. This has increased farmers’ yields from 5 to 22 metric tons per hectare, with average income increasing by 455 percent. With growing local market demand, Tomato Jos needed to raise over $4 million in equity in order to expand its model farm, increase the processing capabilities of its factory, and hire more workers and farmers.
Our Solution & Impact
Tomato Jos raised $4.4M in equity with Prosper Africa transaction advisory support funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This investment will help grow the local workforce as the company scales up, hires, and trains new workers and smallholder farmers to grow produce in a cost-efficient way while increasing productivity. The investment will also inject a projected $1 million of direct income into the local economy by working with thousands of farmers over 2,600 hectares of land.
“The value that we got from Prosper Africa… was really to help us figure out how to tell [our] story—about why what we were doing mattered and why we were now ready to invest in a factory. That was very valuable to us because it enabled us to attract new investors to the table who had bigger checks to write to help us accomplish what had always been our goal.”
Mira Mehta Tomato Jos
