Kenyan startup Farm to Feed has been named among the winners of the Global Call for Startups 2025 at the EAT Food Forum in Stockholm, an event that gathers global leaders working to make food systems more sustainable and just. The recognition celebrates Farm to Feed’s work in turning food loss into climate resilience by connecting farmers with buyers through its digital marketplace.
“It was an incredible honor for Farm to Feed to be named one of the Winners of the Global Call for Startups 2025, alongside four other ventures from all parts of the world: Bioprime, DE3PBIO, Instacrops Inc (YC S21) and Remy – AI Kitchen Assistant. Beyond the award, being at the EAT Food Forum in Stockholm meant being in a hall full of people from every corner of the food ecosystem working on the same question: how do we feed the world, sustainably and justly,” said Claire van Enk, Co-Founder and CEO of Farm to Feed.
The recognition at the EAT Food Forum marks another major milestone for the women-led Kenyan startup, which is reshaping Africa’s food systems through technology and climate-smart innovation. Farm to Feed is tackling one of the continent’s most pressing challenges, the loss of an estimated US$4 billion worth of food every year simply because it looks imperfect. Now, the company has received new support through an investment from Mercy Corps Ventures, which will help scale its impact across Kenya and beyond.
Farm to Feed’s model is simple but powerful. The company buys full harvests from farmers, including “rescue-grade” produce that would otherwise be wasted due to its appearance and resells it through a digital B2B marketplace to schools, restaurants and institutions. This approach helps farmers earn more from every harvest, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and keeps nutritious food circulating in the supply chain rather than ending up in landfills.
Mercy Corps Ventures’ investment builds on an earlier partnership through Mercy Corps AgriFin, which began in 2022. At that time, Farm to Feed received technical support to design its digital marketplace and develop robust tools to track carbon savings and food loss reduction. Now, as part of the Mercy Corps Ventures portfolio, Farm to Feed will expand its capacity to capture real-time data, scale its platform and strengthen climate-smart food systems in East Africa.
The challenge that Farm to Feed addresses is immense. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, post-harvest food losses are estimated at US$4 billion a year, enough to feed at least 48 million people. A large portion of this loss occurs at the producer stage, where perfectly edible food is discarded because of small imperfections, bruises or irregular shapes. Farmers often lack access to markets that will accept such produce, forcing them to use it as animal feed, compost it or discard it entirely.
Farm to Feed was founded during the COVID-19 pandemic as a response to this problem. When lockdowns disrupted supply chains and farmers were unable to sell their crops, the company began as a GoFundMe initiative to distribute surplus food to vulnerable families. What started as an emergency response quickly evolved into a broader mission to reduce food waste, increase farmer incomes and address the climate impact of wasted produce.
Today, the company works with both smallholder and commercial farms across Kenya, purchasing entire harvests and selling them through its online marketplace. It deals with two categories of produce: Grade 1 and 2, which are high-quality fruits and vegetables sold at standard market rates, and rescue-grade produce, which is edible but not visually perfect. By giving value to both, Farm to Feed ensures that nothing edible is wasted.
Before partnering with Farm to Feed, nearly half of the farmers reported using imperfect produce as animal feed, while others composted or discarded it. By connecting these farmers to new buyers, the startup has opened up an additional income stream that improves livelihoods while addressing food insecurity. Commercial kitchens often use rescue-grade items in soups, sauces and stews, while premium-grade produce is used for salads and displays.
To expand this impact, Farm to Feed is now developing semi-processed products, such as peeled garlic and chopped vegetables, to meet the growing demand for convenience in the food industry. This shift will help the company reach new markets, both regionally and internationally, while further reducing food loss. It also draws on lessons from other industries, like the success of baby carrots in the 1990s, showing how innovation and marketing can transform consumer perceptions of “imperfect” food.
The investment by Mercy Corps Ventures aligns closely with its Resilient Future Thesis, which supports businesses using climate-smart technology to strengthen local economies and build sustainable systems. Farm to Feed’s model demonstrates how technology and market linkages can make agriculture more adaptive and resilient. By cutting waste and improving farmer incomes, it contributes directly to climate mitigation and food security.
Just as importantly, the company’s platform collects valuable data on the causes of post-harvest losses across different regions and value chains. This data provides insight into where interventions are most needed and helps shape evidence-based strategies for system-level change.
Farm to Feed’s journey reflects how innovation and social purpose can go hand in hand. From its beginnings as a grassroots initiative during a global crisis to becoming a data-driven enterprise recognized on the world stage, the company is proving that solving food waste can also strengthen climate resilience and economic opportunity.
Through its new partnership with Mercy Corps Ventures, Farm to Feed is poised to scale its impact, supporting more farmers, reducing emissions and inspiring a new way of thinking about food, where nothing edible goes to waste and sustainability drives value at every step of the supply chain.
