Inclusive Growth in Action: Spotlight on Women Founders Reshaping Tech-enabled Logistics in the DOB Equity Portfolio
Across East Africa, a new generation of founders is rethinking how essential goods move through the economy. They are not only building companies, they are rebuilding the systems that connect farmers, traders, and consumers.
As part of International Women’s Month, we spotlight two founders in the DOB Equity ecosystem whose companies are transforming the regions food supply chains: Yi Li, Founder & CEO of Farmworks Agriculture, and Khadija Mohammed-Churchill, Founder and CEO of Kwanza Tukule.
Operating at different points of the food system, both leaders are tackling structural inefficiencies that have long limited growth across agricultural and retail markets. Together, they represent a power shift: women founders leading the next generation tech-enabled logistics and distribution businesses in Africa.
Rebuilding Agricultural Supply Chains
Yi Li founded Farmworks with a clear mission: to build a more efficient and inclusive agricultural value chain for Kenya’s smallholder farmers.
Smallholder farmers produce the majority of the region’s food, yet many remain disconnected from reliable markets. Fragmented supply chains, unpredictable pricing, and inconsistent demand make it difficult for farmers to plan, invest, or grow their businesses.
Farmworks addresses this gap by aggregating produce directly from farmers and connecting it to stable urban markets through an integrated sourcing, logistics, and distribution platform. Today, the company works with more than 5,800 farmers and serves over 21,000 customers: from informal markets to retailers and food businesses across Nairobi and surrounding regions.
By professionalizing aggregation, improving post-harvest handling, and building trusted relationships between farmers and buyers, Farmworks is helping to reduce inefficiencies that have historically limited the productivity of smallholder agriculture.
The result is not only a more reliable supply chain, but also greater income stability for farmers who can now plan production with confidence.
Reinventing Last-Mile Distribution
At the retail end of the food system, Khadija Mohamed-Churchill is solving a different challenge: how essential goods reach the thousands of small neighbourhood shops and food vendors that feed urban communities.
Across East Africa’s cities, informal retailers are the primary source of food and household essentials. Yet these businesses often operate with fragmented supply chains, inconsistent pricing, and limited access to working capital. Kwanza Tukule was built to change that.
The company operates a tech-enabled FMCG distribution platform that supplies staple foods and essential goods to neighbourhood retailers and food vendors. Retailers can order inventory digitally while accessing financing that allows them to keep shelves stocked and businesses growing.
What makes Kwanza Tukule structurally different from earlier B2B logistics startups is its operating philosophy. Rather than treating technology as a marketplace layer on top of logistics, the company has embedded proprietary technology directly into its operational backbone. Systems manage customer ordering history, demand forecasting, pricing visibility, inventory planning, dispatch, and route optimisation.
Sales teams are guided by data on who to call and when demand is most likely to convert. Inventory planning is linked tightly to real demand signals. Dispatch routes are optimized daily to improve efficiency. In short, technology is embedded into the business’ operations.
This approach allows Kwanza Tukule to improve sales productivity, protect margins, and scale its warehouse network across multiple cities while maintaining operational discipline.
Just as importantly, the company focuses on high-frequency, non-discretionary demand, staple foods and everyday essentials that retailers must restock constantly.
The result is a distribution model designed for durable, profitable scale, rather than growth at any cost.
Building the Infrastructure Behind Inclusive Growth
Building logistics infrastructure in fragmented markets requires more than technology. It requires resilience, discipline, and a deep understanding of how markets actually function. Yi Li and Khadija Mohamed embody that leadership.
Through Farmworks and Kwanza Tukule, they are strengthening two critical links in East Africa’s food system, connecting farmers to markets and ensuring retailers can reliably access essential goods. Their companies demonstrate how thoughtful technology integration, operational discipline, and founder insight can unlock opportunity across entire value chains.
For DOB Equity, supporting founders like Yi and Khadija reflects a core belief: inclusive growth is driven by entrepreneurs who understand the systems they are building withinand have the conviction to improve them.
While this article highlights the work of Yi and Khadija, they are part of a broader community of female founders and leaders across the DOB Equity portfolio who are building impactful businesses across the region. From Joyce and Rhoda, Founder & CEO and COO of Zydii, to Nikki Germany, CEO of Moringa, Daisy Isiaho, Co-founder of Zuri Health, Cynthia Wandia, Co-Founder of Kwara, and many others, women across our ecosystem are driving innovation, strengthening organisations, and expanding opportunity across sectors. As we celebrate International Women’s Month, we would like to recognise and celebrate of the women founders and leaders in our portfolio for the impact they continue to create.
As East Africa’s food systems evolve, leaders like these are not only building successful companies. They are helping shape a more resilient, efficient, and inclusive economic future.