Meet Two Nigerian Founders who Raised over $10 million from Oil Palm Processing

Two Nigerian founders — Ikenna Nzewi and Uzoma Ayogu — have raised over $10 million in Nigeria’s palm oil industry. 

The founders, Americans of Nigerian descent, returned to Nigeria to tackle challenges in Africa’s largest oil palm market.

Born and raised in the United States, Ikenna studied computer science at Yale University while Ayogu earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University.

Their company — Releaf — was founded in 2017. Evolving from an agricultural marketplace into a tech-driven processor focused on Nigeria’s palm oil industry.

Releaf addresses a critical bottleneck in the palm oil value chain: smallholder farmers face challenges cracking nuts with varying shell thickness

According to Business Insider Africa, Releaf raised $4.2 million in seed funding, a sign the model was beginning to work.

The duo also developed Kraken, a proprietary palm nut processing system, to address inefficiencies and waste in traditional methods for smallholder farmers.

Kraken was built differently. When it came online in January 2021, it could process 500 metric tons per week at 95% purity, significantly higher than the industry average. It also costs less than half the price of imported systems.

Releaf has successfully raised funding from Y Combinator and non-dilutive sources, including Cisco Foundation and USAID, blending equity, grants, and debt to build a resilient, inclusive agro-industrial business. The startup is preparing for future rounds of investment to expand its operations across Nigeria and into West Africa, targeting Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, while refining its expansion playbook to ensure scalability.

By 2030, Releaf aims to remove 700,000 metric tons of CO₂, recycle 50,000 tons of waste, produce 20,000 tons of biochar annually, and impact over one million farmers with over 500 new jobs.

Nigeria used to lead the global palm oil market. Today, it’s one of its biggest importers. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the country accounted for over 40% of global palm oil production, exporting more than enough to meet both local and international demand.

Nigeria’s share of global palm oil production has plummeted from over 40 per cent in the 1970s to less than two per cent in 2024, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture. 

A study on the effect of weather parameters on oil palm production revealed that the distribution of rainfall affects the growth and development of palm trees and, in turn, affects palm oil production.

According to the National President of the Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN), Joe Onyiuke, “Nigeria is trying to reduce its import dependency. Currently, we produce about 1.5 million tonnes annually and our demand is about 2.4 million tonnes. This means we import about 900,000 metric tons.”

Palm oil remains the cheapest and most edible vegetable oil globally. The oil palm tree produces 4.95 tons of edible oil per hectare (ha), six times more than the rapeseed tree, the next highest.  

Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that India, Indonesia, the European Union (EU), China and Pakistan are the top five consumers of palm oil globally. Combined, they account for approximately 51% of global consumption. Egypt and Nigeria are the largest consumers in Africa.

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