Meet the innovators set to scale cold chain solutions in Kenya
Five companies have been selected to receive grant funding and tailored support through the Kenya Cold Chain Accelerator (KCCA), a programme working to scale affordable cold chain solutions in a country where up to 40% of fresh produce is lost between harvest and market.
Launched in late 2025 and running until the end of 2026, KCCA is managed by Energy Saving Trust, co-secretariat of Efficiency for Access, and delivered in partnership with Energy 4 Impact and GOGLA, with support from the UK government through the Transforming Energy Access platform and the IKEA Foundation.
The companies were chosen not only for their technology, but also for the commercial traction they have already demonstrated and the potential to go further with the right support. “These are companies that have proven their models work, but face specific barriers to scaling: whether that’s refining unit economics, strengthening operational systems, or building the financial track record needed to attract investment,” says Pancras Odhiambo, Programme Manager at Energy 4 Impact. “Our role is to work closely with each of them to identify and address those barriers, so they can grow on a sustainable commercial footing.”
From lake to market
Two of the five companies are tackling post-harvest losses in Kenya’s fisheries sector, where deterioration can begin within hours of a catch.
Kuza Coolers provides solar-powered cold storage and market access for fishing communities in western Kenya. Through KCCA, it is building a cold storage and aggregation hub in Homa Bay County to support 650 smallholder fish farmers and artisanal fishers working in Lake Victoria, where up to 45% of catch is currently lost. Operating on a Cooling-as-a-Service model, fishers pay per use rather than facing prohibitive equipment costs, and Kuza’s digital marketplace connects them directly with urban buyers. Their model has already been proven at a similar hub in Mombasa.
Keep IT Cool operates a solar cold chain network in northern Kenya, connecting small-scale fishers and farmers to cooling and markets. It is expanding around Lake Turkana with cold rooms, solar freezers, and a solar ice machine. The company is also introducing indigenous poultry farming as a complementary income stream, a diversification strategy that builds resilience beyond cold chain alone, with training set to cover post-harvest handling, poultry management, and financial literacy.
Both companies will receive tailored technical assistance from Energy 4 Impact, which leads the programme’s business support component. This includes commercial baselining, where each company’s current financial and operational position is assessed in detail, alongside operational diagnostics and financial modelling to help sharpen their path to commercial viability.
Scaling proven networks
Agrotech Plus and Savanna Circuit are both at a stage where the core technology and customer base exist, and the challenge is scaling efficiently.
Agrotech Plus runs a solar-powered cold chain network for smallholder horticultural farmers, currently operating 12 cold rooms serving 1,500 farmers and traders. Through KCCA, it will expand its network into Machakos and Meru counties with new modular cold rooms and mobile cooling units integrated with a digital PAYGo platform, connecting farmers with vetted input suppliers and buyers to address market access alongside the cooling gap.
Savanna Circuit develops and deploys renewable-powered cold chain technology for the dairy and fisheries sectors, with over 1,000 units already operating across 26 counties and preserving 12 million litres of milk annually. Its new initiative combines solar-powered chillers, mobile milk storage units, and electric vehicles with digital traceability tools and cooperative-led service models to help producers access premium markets.
For companies at this stage, the support focuses on investment readiness: refining business strategies, establishing robust monitoring and financial management systems, and building the credibility needed to engage investors and commercial partners.
Beyond storage
Chill Zone is building an integrated cold chain and value-addition system for horticultural crops in Kenya, from farm-level aggregation through to processing and retail. Its model encompasses aggregation points, a central hub in Nairobi for domestic and export supply, and a value-addition factory in Eldoret producing juice and jams for the hotel and restaurant sector. The company works with young smallholder farmers on crops including passion fruit, and mango, providing disease-resistant varieties to ensure year-round supply.
Chill Zone’s ambition, scaling from 450 to 10,000 farmers in five years, illustrates the kind of growth trajectory that requires not just grant funding but a clear commercial strategy and the systems to support it.
No single solution
There is no one-size-fits-all model for cold chain in Kenya. A fish aggregation hub on Lake Victoria solves a different problem to a mobile milk chiller in a pastoral county or a juice factory in Eldoret. The diversity of these five companies reflects the reality that Kenya’s cold chain gaps are as varied as its agricultural landscape.
These companies share a common inflection point: each has demonstrated that its model works, but turning a proven concept into a scalable business requires sharper unit economics, stronger operational systems, and the kind of financial credibility that unlocks investment. As investable approaches become ones that can be replicated by others, that is precisely the gap that KCCA is designed to bridge.