When Food Bundles, a local online fresh food distribution company, announced a partnership deal with musician Bruce Melodie worth Rwf 1 billion on Wednesday, August 25, every member of the press at the presser was taken aback.

The artist was said to be paid the money within two years during which the partnership will last.

Journalists however, seemingly found it hard to believe how a Rwandan musician could reach an agreement worth such a huge amount of money, more so with a company that started operations in Rwanda six months ago.

They started to browse how big the company is, their current investments, and revenues generated since they started operations.

"What kind of company are you, with the financial capacity to pay him a Rwf 1 billion within two years?”

"There has been talk that artists sign fake deals and are presented with fake cheques to just hype things, is this real?”

Those are questions that were addressed to both parties involved in the partnership deal to shed light.

Food Bundles’ founder, Dioscore Shikama, said that the company’s strategy of working with Bruce is equal to the amount they agreed to give to help them grow not only in Rwanda but also reach their target regional international market, starting with the Middle East (UAE, Qatar) and East Africa.

"For us, the Rwf 1 billion comes with the vision we have in terms of accessing a bigger market and also it comes with the responsibilities we gave Bruce Melodie. Trust me, it’s not easy, a lot of work in terms of outreach of consumers but we believe he can deliver,” Shikama said.

"He’s no longer a local artist because his music is increasingly going beyond borders and he meets our targets to reach the international market,” he added.

The singer will be tasked to help the firm in brand awareness, marketing and product development. He will also be doing road shows, food festivals and other activities engaging farmers during the two years course.

Dioscore Shikama founder of Food Bundle during the signing ceremony at Kigali Convention Center on August 25, 2021. / Dan Nsengiyumva

With Bruce Melodie, the company targets to reduce farmers’ harvest loss from the current 40 per cent to 10 per cent in the next two years and while also increasing the number of farmers it works with to 300,000 farmers after two years, from the current 3,000.

The company has so far spent Rwf 1.5 billion used in research on the project, building business model and development of Food Bundles technology product while it is currently raising a seed capital of Rwf 3 billion from its partner investors from the United States, Canada and Europe.

Shikama is confident that Bruce Melodie will help his company achieve its target revenues which is projected at Rwf 20 million a day, as long as the company can hit its target of making 10, 000 sales a day in the next two years from which they will be getting an average Rwf2, 000 per order.

But how real is the deal?

Word going around is that some local business companies and celebrities hype the deals they sign just to draw attention from both the media and the public at large.

And, for a company that could not disclose its investment size and its current revenues, the Rwf 1 billion deal prompted journalists to ask both parties how real their deal is.

Shikama explained that Food Bundles is an equity-based startup which works with international investors who get shares from the company.

"We have investors from the United States, Canada and Europe and that’s why I said we are raising more money. But sometimes we don’t put these numbers out there because we have different investors and it can affect one of our negotiations,” he said.

Shikama said that the deal is real and worth it because the money that will be paid to Bruce Melodie within the agreed time is part of the company’s investment raised from the investors.

"Bruce Melodie is an artist with a big brand and, in our metrics, he has a vast outreach to the people we want to reach. We see him as a person who can help us reach out to so many farmers and we see potential in him to help us grow our technology-based distribution than we can using traditional marketing strategy,” explained Shikama.

Lee Ndayisaba, the CEO of Clouds Entertainment that manages Bruce Melodie, said the deal is a result of what their singer has done for the past decade in music.

"The deal is real and it is sad to hear some people feeling like it’s a miracle. If it happens elsewhere, why not here then? It’s not fake. We have been negotiating this deal for six months with our lawyers. It is real,” Ndayisaba said.

And the singer, who previously signed similar deals with big corporate firms like Kigali Arena and brewing company Brok, did not understand why people would question the amount described in the deal yet he is clearly reaping fruits of what he built for over ten years in music.

 "I’ve been doing music for years and I think this is the right time to harvest from it. I never knew that a day like this would come and I would sign a deal like this. It all goes with blessing from God together with the job I am doing,” he said.

"Choosing to work with me is not charity but because they trust that I will do the job well,” he added

There was no deal signing

Partnership deals between concerned parties are normally signed before the media. However, the two did not wish to sign the deal at the venue, explaining it was advised by their lawyers.

But, to Eric Kirenga Karengera, a local artist commonly known by stage name as Eric Soul, what’s important is that the official from the company spoke to the press and confirmed the deal.

"If there is dispute or controversy later on .... time will tell,” he said.

Instead, he described the deal as ‘excellent’ for the industry as it opens a path for the creative industry to explore new ways to harness and leverage their power according to their digital market value.

"To me it could be USD 100, 000 or USD 1million or USD 1 billion…it doesn't matter ... It's the philosophy of the deal and their choice of investing into a Rwanda young creative with documented digital market value,” he said.

For a company like Food Bundles targeting to serve several countries in East Africa and Middle East, Eric Soul is positive that the company won’t find it difficult to make returns if it can serve its target.

"…in Kenya, it's very easy for tech startups to raise USD10, 50 or 100 million dollars from Venture Capitalists...did you know the e-commerce startup ecosystem in Kenya managed to raise more than $220 million dollars despite the challenges Covid19? That's just one country,” he explained.