Jasiri Talent Investor Connect: Women in Food Systems — Nairobi
Twenty women in food systems, the Jasiri team, and breakfast.
We are bringing together twenty founders, operators and technical specialists working across food systems in Kenya. Women who have built companies. Women running functions inside established businesses. Women who carry deep expertise in their part of the chain.
Breakfast with Gatwĩri Njogu-Mokaya
Gatwĩri is CEO and Co-Founder of VunaPay. Smallholder farmers were waiting three to six months, sometimes over a year, to be paid for produce they had already delivered, which pushed them towards middlemen and high-interest loans. VunaPay pays them on delivery instead. Since 2023 the company has worked with close to 200 cooperatives and over 130,000 farmers across coffee, maize and dairy.
She will talk about the early part of that journey. How she knew the problem was real, what she got wrong, how the founding team came together, and what the first money looked like.
The format
A conversation between peers. No panel, no presentation.
Gatwĩri and our fellows will speak candidly about what building has actually looked like, including the parts that were harder than they expected. The Jasiri team is there for anything you want to ask about Cohort 9. Beyond that, the room sets the agenda.
Who we are inviting
Women working in food systems, in production, processing, logistics, finance, data, distribution, or anywhere along the chain. Women who have built before, are building now, or are deciding what to build next. Women with real depth in their field and a view on which problems in it are worth solving.
Registration
Twenty places, reviewed and confirmed individually. Register your interest here and we will be in touch. The venue will be shared with confirmed guests.
About Jasiri
Jasiri Talent Investor is a programme of Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropies. We back exceptional people before they have an idea and support them through 13 months of building a venture, from co-founder formation through to launch. Since 2021 we have worked with 277 people who have started 116 companies across Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. Our next cohort is focused on food systems.
Applications for Cohort 9 are open at www.jasiri.org and close 12 October 2026.