KenTuna
A Watamu-based seafood business supplying fresh, portioned, traceable tuna to Kenya’s premium retailers, lodges and restaurants, acquired by Pharo Ventures with Across Agriculture to scale ethical, artisanal fishing into a national brand.
Ken Tuna processing, Watamu, Kenya.
The finest Kenyan seafood, traceable to the fisherman.
Founded in Watamu in 2019 by captain and fisherman Bryan Matiba, KenTuna sources high-quality pelagic fish and seafood directly from artisanal fishers, processes it to a premium standard, and delivers it across Kenya.
KenTuna buys from small-scale fishers who use sustainable one-by-one fishing methods, grades on quality rather than quantity, and pays above the market price. Each fish is cleaned, filleted, vacuum-sealed and blast-frozen at -18°C, assigned a unique lot number that traces it back to the supplier and landing date.
In six years, the business has built trusted partnerships with Greenspoon, Zucchini and other Nairobi supermarkets, served high-end lodges and resorts, and maintained zero food-safety incidents.
A productive coast, with the value captured everywhere but home.
Kenya’s coastline yields two tuna seasons a year (March–May and September–December), fished mostly by artisanal communities with little access to premium urban and export markets. A lack of aggregation, traceability and cold-chain infrastructure keeps prices low and quality inconsistent.
No dominant processor sits between the artisanal catch and premium retail, so fragmented, ad hoc buying dominates, and costly imported frozen fish from Asia fills the gap in Nairobi’s fast-growing, health-conscious market and state-of-the-art restaurants.
Our response
Acquire and scale a proven operator: deepen artisanal sourcing, extend the cold chain along the coast, and use Across Agriculture’s distribution to double revenue over 12–18 months.
Source ethically
Buy from artisanal fishers in Watamu, Kilifi and Kipini at fair prices, supplying ice and cooler boxes free of charge and training crews to preserve quality at sea.
Add value locally
Clean, fillet, vacuum-pack (250g/500g/1kg) and blast-freeze at the Watamu facility, with QR-coded lot tracking from boat to plate.
Reach the market
Sell B2B to lodges, resorts and retailers and direct to consumers, delivered next day to Nairobi via insulated boxes and Fargo Courier, amplified by Across Agriculture’s premium-protein channels.
Our impact
2025 figures, reported in the annual report.
What we learnt
The value is added on land.
Catching is the easy part. Durable returns and coastal jobs come from handling, processing and traceable branding onshore, the steps Ken Tuna already does well.
Buy a proven operator, then de-risk it.
Acquiring an established, debt-free business with six years of food-safety record removes start-up risk; pairing it with Across Agriculture’s execution discipline addresses the founder-dependence and distribution gaps.
Fair prices build loyal supply.
Paying above market on quality, and equipping fishers with cold-chain kits and training, secures a reliable supply base while raising incomes along the coast.
A proving ground for Somaliland.
Ken Tuna lets Pharo learn the seafood value chain in a market with real infrastructure before attempting similar impact on the Somaliland coast.
Invest alongside Pharo Ventures.
Partnership, co-funding and operator enquiries start here.