Tomato Jos Secured $4.2 Million in Series A Round to Expand Operations 

• Tomato Jos Secured $4.2 Million in Series A Round to Expand Operations 

Tomato Jos, an agro-processing venture, has secured $4.2 million in a Series A funding round to expand operations into tomato paste.

According to the statement put out by the company, Goodwell Investments through Alitheia Capital, it’s West African partner, led the investment round with participation from Acumen Capital Partners and VestedWorld.

Situated in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, Tomato Jos plans to address one of Nigeria’s main problems, processing and timely distribution of tomato products across the country.

A few reports have shown about 40 percent of harvested tomatoes go to waste in Nigeria due to poor storage facilities and lack of cross-country transport system. Meaning, local farmers can not store or distribute the crop at a scale.

In the last six years, Tomato Jos has broadened and strengthened its tomato production and reduce waste in its value chain process. However, with the new funding the company will commence work on an irrigation system and a tomato processing plant with 24 tons per day production capacity, below Dangote’s current production capacity of 100 tons per day but with a more complete and realistic supply chain process.

“Processing has always been the plan for Tomato Jos, but to get there, we spent a long five years working only on farming and primary production to make sure that we had a really solid foundation in place,” says Mira Mehta, founder and CEO of Tomato Jos.

Mira Mehta, the American who founded Tomato Jos