Kenya Cold Chain Accelerator
Supporting sustainable cooling innovators in Kenya
Full report
Company spotlights
About the Accelerator
The Kenya Cold Chain Accelerator (KCCA) is part of the Low Energy Inclusive Appliances (LEIA) programme. Agriculture is central to Kenya’s economy, accounting for 31.5% of GDP and employing 38% of the population. Kenya is one of the leading countries in sub-Saharan Africa to test off-grid cold chain technologies, and a focus country for the LEIA programme.
The KCCA will build on previous work to support the testing and scale-up of business models for effective, commercially viable agricultural cold chain.
Managed by Energy Saving Trust, in partnership with Energy 4 Impact and GOGLA, the KCCA will take an ecosystem approach in achieving its objectives, including:
- Providing financial support for cold chain companies to enable business model testing and scaling. Support is available from between £50,000-£150,000
- Optional additional support to companies in the form of technical assistance, research or workforce and skills initiatives
- Enhancing cross-sector dialogue to create an enabling environment to build government awareness of cold chain technologies, business models, market barriers and solutions needed
FUNDING
Five organisations were awarded funding.
About the projects
Agrotech Plus: Expanding its solar-powered cold chain network to help reduce food waste and strengthen the livelihoods of smallholder horticultural farmers in Meru and Machakos counties.
Chill Zone: Building an integrated cold chain and value‑addition ecosystem for horticulture, including cold storage and processing facilities, to reduce waste and expand markets for smallholder farmers.
Keep IT Cool: Expanding the cold chain in the Lake Turkana region to support small-scale farmers and strengthen local livelihoods.
Kuza Coolers: Establishing a 40‑tonne solar‑powered fish aggregation and cold storage hub in Western Kenya to cut losses by half and boost incomes for 650 smallholder fishers.
Savanna Circuit: Deploying decentralised solar‑powered chillers, portable cooling units, and digital tools to cut dairy and fisheries spoilage and improve market access for rural producers.
Learn more about the projects in the Project Spotlights report.