Lovegrass LTD is a company that manufactures teff-based products. They presented at Innovation Session n°16.
Lovegrass Ltd.
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Oluwaseun Sangoleye, founder and CEO of Baby Grubz, is an experienced nutrition educator, international speaker and multiple award-winning entrepreneur. Baby Grubz manufactures packaged infant meals and snacks made from grains, fruit and vegetables, and is an innovative social enterprise.
Oluwaseun has published ebooks and articles on child nutrition, and provides online mentoring to over 350,000 Nigerian mothers across the company’s social media platforms. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Lagos State University, Nigeria, and has undergone training in programming for infant and young child feeding at the Cornell NutritionWorks in conjunction with UNICEF, as well as Business and Entrepreneurship at the Clark Atlanta University, Georgia, USA. Oluwaseun constantly seeks opportunities to empower women everywhere.
Business Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Year of Foundation: 2013
Number of Employees: 15, 13 of whom are women
CEO: Oluwaseun Sangoleye
Mission
Baby Grubz aims to improve the nutrition of African babies by supporting their optimal growth. The company produces quality food with high levels of nutrients.
Business Model
Baby Grubz is a food company that manufactures complementary baby and infant food products. The company works on an inclusive business model which includes producing nutritional food products, developing sales points with distributors and franchises, and providing a mentoring programme on child nutrition to its online communities.
Oluwaseun’s own experience of being a mother led her to create Baby Grubz, as her son did not eat regularly and she could not find any advice online on how to feed young children. So she started preparing pureed fruit and vegetables according to her own recipes, and educated herself about babies’ and toddlers nutritional needs. This resulted in her developing nutrient-dense foods and snacks for babies.
Baby Grubz food products are prepared with “super foods” in order to tackle the major deficiencies in baby and infant nutrition. The company engages with over 300,000 mothers to provide peer-to-peer mentoring on the benefits of nutritious foods and breastfeeding.
Baby Grubz is an African pioneer company in training mothers about children’s nutrition as well as producing food for babies and infants.
The targeted consumers are low- and middle-income women with children aged 6 months to 5 years. Baby Grubz serves over 5,000 customers a month in Nigeria and Ghana.
Baby Grubz sources its products from two major local Nigerian producers, as well as other offtakers.
Products and Markets
Baby Grubz produces and packages a wide range of affordable dried homemade cereals, grains, fruit, vegetables and condiments that serve as a base to make a variety of nutritious and fast meals for African babies.
Baby Grubz produces baby and infant food products, and distributes them through its network of distributors across four countries (Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and United Kingdom), including in over 300 stores in 26 states across Nigeria. The company also provides peer-to-peer mentoring to a community of more than 350,000 mothers. Subscribing to the mentoring programme opens up access to (e-)books, meal plans, and soon to in-app sales.
Baby Grubz is looking for new certifications, staring with the international HACCP and ISO certifications.
Innovations: Milestones and Expansion Plans
Baby Grubz founder and CEO Oluwaseun has taken part in training on investment readiness and strengthening the nutritional impact of businesses, from the Base of Pyramid Innovation Centre, Netherlands, and Cathy AgriProjects Management Limited, Kenya.
In 2020, Baby Grubz won the Global SUN Pitch Competition with a cash prize of US$20,000. The company used the money to carry out an analysis on micronutrients and adapt its products accordingly, as well as to purchase equipment.
During Covid-19, Baby Grubz faced economic challenges due to increased exchange rates and material costs, and lower quality of raw materials. However, the company also seized new opportunities during the pandemic by supplying customers who could not buy imported products (due to delays and border disruptions).
Baby Grubz plans to supply 10% of the market in the next two years.
Baby Grubz wants to become a major actor in reducing malnutrition, and is looking for investments for its branding, marketing and product design, as well as for expertise in distribution expertise to expand its business.
The company also wants to buy a production facility and more equipment to automate production for a ten-fold-increase.
Success Factors and Lessons Learned
Baby Grubz has contributed to enhancing the nutrition of more than 200,000 children since its inception.
Through its wide range of activities, the company employs several women as distributors or members of its peer-to-peer mentoring programme, and so enables them to support their families. Baby Grubz has financially empowered 148 women to start their own business.
In 2020, Baby Grubz won the Global SUN Pitch Competition among 500 SMEs from across Africa and Asia. The company was also first runner-up in the African Development Bank’s 2020 AgriPitch competition, and has received a US$10,000 grant from the Bank’s Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund.
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