Alitheia IDF, a private equity fund that identifies, invests in, and grows SMEs, has led a $3m Series A investment round in ReelFruit, a premium dried fruit company in Nigeria.

“Alitheia IDF is proud to support ReelFruit's ongoing efforts to boost food production in Nigeria and positively impact communities through deliberate partnerships with local farmers, distributors, and retailers,” said Tokunboh Ishmael, Alitheia IDF co-Founder.

“The investment will strengthen the company to unlock further growth, upskill farmers and improve economic outcomes for thousands of women who play a significant role in the production of ReelFruit’s products,” he said.

Alitheia IDF invested $2m, while Samata Capital and Flying Doctor Healthcare Investment Company provided $1m.

With the capital, ReelFruit will scale its dried fruit production, develop new products, and increase exports by 10x to 15mt in the first year.

Key to its expansion plans, ReelFruit will acquire a new factory in Ogun State to increase its monthly dried fruit production from 6mt to 30mt.

The factory will hire over 200 people in its first year.

WIth its greater supply of dried fruit, ReelFruit will continue to innovate new products for the local and international markets.

As part of its efforts to secure high quality raw materials, ReelFruit plans to deepen its existing work with Nigerian fruit farmers.

The company will form an agro-extension services program for 250 registered mango and pineapple producers.

The program will boost fruit yields and help support a steady supply of high quality raw material for the factory.

To meet strong demand for its dried fruit snacks, ReelFruit will diversify its local and international sales channels.

The company is planing to launch an e-commerce channel for direct US sales by 4Q21.

ReelFruit will also unlock more B2B opportunities including whitelabelling and co-packing to support the national drive toward import substitution.

Local buyers will be able to buy dried fruit locally thereby reducing dependence on imports.

Reelfruit is already on track to double last year’s revenues by November 2021.

Affiong Williams, ReelFruit CEO & Founder, said: “This investment takes ReelFruit to the next level. We can meet increased demand for our products and tackle one of our biggest challenges – raw material supply. We’re thrilled that this will unleash a greater impact on our value chain by increasing farmer incomes and creating up to 300 decent jobs for Nigerians.”