Across Kenya’s informal settlements, millions rely on simple everyday foods to get through the day. TenX Nutrition aims to quietly improve those moments by embedding meaningful micronutrients into foods people already eat daily. Today, TenX products reach thousands of consumers across Nairobi’s low-income communities, contributing millions of “nutrition days” through habitual consumption.
The core innovation is simple: using mandazi – one of Kenya’s most widely consumed snacks – as a scalable nutrition vehicle. Each Mandazi POWER provides about 25% of daily micronutrient requirements for nutrients such as iron, zinc, and vitamin A, while remaining affordable at the same price as conventional alternatives. The product combines ingredients like sweet potato, millet, soybean and jaggery with a micronutrient mix developed with partners including GAIN and SternVitamin.
Since launching in 2024, TenX Nutrition has sold more than 1.6 million products, reaching an estimated 8,000–10,000 consumers daily through about 1,500 roadside shops in Nairobi’s informal settlements. Demand consistently exceeds production capacity, and many consumers now actively request the product by name – rare in the mandazi market.
The initiative began with a simple question: how can nutrition scale through foods people already love? After extensive recipe development, Mandazi POWER emerged as the first product in a platform combining food innovation, local supply chains, and partnerships with organizations such as CGIAR, TechnoServe, and GAIN – aiming to show that sustainable nutrition impact can be driven through everyday markets.
Investment
Partnership