Vakayi SME Fund provides growth capital to Zimbabwean entrepreneurs operating in the essential services sectors, which are health, housing, education and clean energy sectors. Typically, these are businesses in later stages of development, profitable, cash generative, with potential to scale operations. Vakayi Capital seeks to work alongside capable entrepreneurs who are passionate about their businesses and have a strong will to succeed. Besides seeking financial returns from its investments, Vakayi invests in businesses that deliver meaningful impact.

<p>Aventura Investment Partners invest in and support companies that provide value chain services to smallholder growers in Africa. It targets companies that provide a range of services in the input supply, production or post-harvest phases of the value chain. Each investment is accompanied by a comprehensive training programme on business processes and job-specific technical skills. The model is highly scalable with core investments that can be replicated across Africa.</p>

Ceniarth provides capital to market-based solutions that benefit underserved communities through direct and fund investments. Though mostly it provides debt and equity capital, in some cases it also provides grants when there are non-financial issues preventing the development of its target areas.

When our journey began in 2015, we focused on providing direct access to electricity to households and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
However, we quickly realised that in order to truly move the needle in this regard, the investment scope had to be broadened to include productive use cases enabled by low carbon energy.
We evolved our focus and investment strategy in complete transparency and with the cooperation of our investors and entrepreneurs.

ENVenture is an incubator that empowers rural organisations to learn business skills to launch sustainable clean energy enterprises, starting in Uganda. Incubatees receive a revolving loan and a business coach that mentor them in launching the business, and undertaking the packaged business concept from idea to execution.

Global Partnerships (GP) funds early-stage social enterprises. Its main focus areas are women empowerment and rural poverty. GP provides grants for pilot phase enterprises and debt financing to support growth of proven enterprises.

The Injaro Agricultural Capital Holdings Ltd. (Injaro) provides investments in debt, quasi-equity, and equity in small and medium-sized enterprises along the agricultural value chain. In addition, Injaro also provides business advice and technical assistance.

Lending for African Farming (LAFCo) is an investment company providing loans to African agricultural small and medium enterprises that work directly with smallholder farmers. Its primary purpose is to provide working capital financing for borrowers working in food crop value chains. All borrowers have to demonstrate that they are delivering a clear benefit to smallholder farmers. LAFCo defines smallholder farmers as those cultivating less than 10 hectares. It key targets include: - Agro-dealers or input providers - Processors - Traders, distributors, exporters - Logistics providers (e.g., warehouses) - Other agricultural businesses To qualify for a loan, an entity much have revenues of less than USD 15 million and fewer than 300 employees. It is supported by KFW, UKAid and USAID among others.

MBC Africa provides an enabling environment for agribusinesses in Africa by integrating the business services they need to grow onto one single platform. MBC Africa’s role is to identify, nurture and develop a critical mass of viable growth-oriented agribusinesses as a pipeline for sustainable and impactful investment in selected African economies. It provides a range of offerings for enterprises include a six month accelerator, a young fellows programme, technical advisory support and management training and coaching.

Pearl Capital Partners (PCP) is an agriculture investment management firm investing in agricultural small and medium-sized businesses in East Africa. Investment sizes range between USD250,000 and USD2.5 million. PCP offers technical assistance via the USAID Technical Assistance Facility. At the moment, PCP manages four funds: - African Agricultural Capital - African Seed Investment Fund - African Agricultural Capital Fund - Yield Uganda Investment Fund.