When Tonny Smith Kiganda moved from Uganda to Prague, fruit at the Czech supermarkets left him underwhelmed. “The bananas tasted like nothing.”
After a while, he began transporting fruits not only for his personal consumption. Kiganda started advertising his fruit hauls on an online sell-and-buy group, taking the metro to personally drop off the produce to customers. “I saw the need to connect family growers in Africa to the market here,” said Kiganda. There was an immediate demand.
What started as a small online venture turned into his company, virunga. The business model is simple. The company pays Ugandan families for the surplus of their fruits grown at home, then it ships the fruits to Prague where they are sold online and at farmer’s markets.
