The coronavirus pandemic brings more than a healthcare crisis to Africa, it brings disruptions to the food supply chain that will likely cause widespread hunger and starvation.
The food system is already far from ideal, with (at least) 40% of that food never being eaten due to post-harvest losses (Rockefeller Foundation studies).
Adding to these issues are the friction of closed borders, lockdowns, and lost revenues from the best paying customers: hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, and safaris.
Pre-pandemic, there was far too much friction in the early-stage financial markets to fund the food/ag supply chain. Now these food companies are essential services and the only chance to prevent widespread hunger.
A solution for all these issues is Africa Eats, a holding company with a diverse set of African food/ag companies supporting hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers, feeding millions of Africans.
An agile holding company that can efficiently put capital to work to keep the food supply running.
Africa Eats does not try solving this problem from scratch, but instead begins with 27 fledglings (graduates) of Fledge, the global network of conscious company accelerators. 27 young, for-profit, growing companies chosen from thousands as most likely to succeed, with impact embedded in their product or service, and who have all received two months of intense training, capital, and follow-on support. 27 companies which in 2019 earned over $7 million in aggregate revenues and which worked directly with over 100,000 smallholder farmers.
Contact us if you would like more information.
Africa Eats was in the news this weekend: Novel Holding Company Africa Eats Has Raised $1.8 Million For Its Impact Startups Anne Field of Forbes did a lovely job explaining why the company was formed, how it is tackling hunger and poverty, and how the holding company model generally works. And note that between the time of the interview and publication, three more investors committed another...
What do 27 baby elephant companies do with $2 million of growth capital? They grow. Fast. Africa Eats Ltd. began just over a year ago with 27 fledglings all growing, but nearly all lacking the resources to grow as quickly as they desired. A year later, this novel investment holding company has raised over $2 million to help meet those needs. Where did that money go? Operational capital –...
Zebra’s may fix what Unicorns break, but that hasn’t stopped the investing world from their focus on hunting unicorns. Maybe a little in the impact investing space, but there the world of young companies is split into “startups” and “SMEs” with the latter still looked upon as potential unicorns and the latter often derided as unworthy of investment. Rather than debate either of those two...
The first six months 2021 revenue numbers are in from our 27 investees. $8.3 million (USD equivalent). If the second half simply doubles the first, growth for the year will hit 70%. Amazing given the bizi are still dealing with lockdowns, power outages, along with the other common setbacks from young companies. Even more impressive is what happens when you ask the spreadsheet to calculate the...
Most of us are used to savings and investments being the realm of banks and brokers. But for the masses in Uganda (and Sub-Saharan Africa) the banks are too far and too expensive and the local currencies a poor way to save. Instead, savings often take the form of bricks to build a home or a few chickens to feed the children or now with Agro Supply, seeds for the next planting season...
We often compare the investment holding company model to the more common venture capital fund. A typical venture fund makes 15-20 investments in its 10 year lifetime. Or more specifically, it finds and invests in 15-20 total companies, often joining in one, two, or three rounds of investments per company over 10 years. Africa Eats began with a portfolio of 27 companies. We’ll eventually add...
Rwanda has one of the fast growing economies of the world and as more and more Rwandans leave poverty and enter the middle class, their demand for protein, especially meat, growth even faster. The same demand was seen over a century ago when Europe grew itself out of poverty and replicated again in Asia over the last few decades. This is the trend that led Herve Tuyishime to start Paniel Meat...
Swahili Honey is finishing up an order for delivering 1,476 new beehives in Tanzania.
Building beehives is a small part of Swahili Honey’s business, but important as the main business is aggregating, processing, bottling, and distributing honey from smallholder farmers throughout Tanzania. 980 farmers in 2020 growing past 1,200 in 2021, many of which will be using these new beehives.
Talk to 100 foundations and government offices about their solution to hunger and poverty in Africa, and you’ll find hundreds of programs that send people out to the villages to train the farmers. These programs are pushing on a rope. Africa Eats pulls on the rope. Specifically, we invest in supply chain companies that buy from smallholder farmers. When you buy from the farmers, they then...
SPACs are the big new old thing in American finance this year. What is a SPAC? It’s a pile of money in search of a business. Africa Eats is an anti-SPAC. It’s a pile of companies in search of money. SPACs exist because the system for funding high-growth private companies in the United States is far from efficient, and that includes the process for listing shares on a stock exchange...
