Back in 2020 when the pandemic began, Paniel Meat Processing found itself with an internal logistics system covering the major cities in Rwanda, but excess capacity due to the lockdowns. To keep the trucks busy, they spun out Paniel Transport & Logistics. Creating new companies to solve internal problems was not new to Herve Tuyishime, founder/CEO. He had done the same with livestock...
Which of the dozens of fast-growing companies in the portfolio grew the most in 2021? There are two ways to answer that question. Agro Supply, by percentage Measured by percentage, Agro Supply grew the fastest, from $217,000 of of revenue in 2020 to just over $1 million in 2021. Nearly five-fold for the year. This is a company with a unique model for smallholder farmers to invest in agriculture...
2022 begins the third calendar year of operations for Africa Eats. One unique aspect of the investment holding company is that it included a portfolio of companies from Day 1. Despite the pandemic we not only didn’t have any failures in these past two years but our entrepreneurs have grabbed new opportunities and spun-off or spin-up new companies, and we’ve added most of them to the...
Thanks to Wefunder, you can own shares in Africa Eats. 124 investors have joined in so far, pledging more than $425,000. The minimum investment is just $100 and anyone in the world can buy these shares. wefunder.com/africaeats The pitch deck is viewable on that crowdfunding site along with videos stories from the bizi. A video version of the pitch is watchable on Youtube below. Every dollar gets...
From the founders of Geossy comes Amuria Honey, a new honey processor based in the Amuria District of Uganda.
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...
A common issue facing processing and manufacturing companies in Africa is the lack of reliable electricity. Time and money are lost every time the power goes out. Food is spoiled. Growth is held back. Here in the 2020s solar is now an affordable solution. Specifically battery-backed solar, running 24hrs on solar power with the grid used only as a backup. That may sound expensive, but given the...
We’ve previously talked about having too many investment opportunities. That is still true despite making five more investments this week. #2 – Essential Bean by Kalahari Honey We said our top priority for investing was to mitigate hunger and the most direct and impactful opportunities we’ve seen is Essential Bean, a new subsidiary of Kalahari Honey in Botswana. Botswana closed...
We’ve previously talked about having too many investment opportunities. That is true. But that didn’t stop us from making our first investment. #1 – Agro Supply Urgency drove a loan to Agro Supply. The company sells seeds and other agricultural inputs to over 7,000 Ugandan farmers. Trouble is, the company needs to pay the seed company upon pick-up, but doesn’t get paid by...