“The Missing Middle” is what we call the gap in finance the majority of entrepreneurs face in getting from a viable prototype or early customers to a full-scale proven business. This talk was presented at Sankalp Global 2022 by Luni Libes, co-founder and CEO of Africa Eats. In Part 1, Luni explains who he is, and how he came to fill in this otherwise missing middle. In Part 2...
Ziweto Enterprise now manufacturers animal feed concentrates in Lilongwe, Malawi, helping lower the cost of animal feeds for smallholder farmers in Malawi, making livestock more affordable to more farmers.
The “Missing Middle” of capital is the funding for promising young companies between their initial idea and their first few million dollars of revenues. As you can imagine, getting to even $1 million USD in annual revenue is a challenge for African entrepreneurs given relatively few Angels and only a handful of seed funds. Africa Eats helped of our of bizi grow from $100,000 to over...
While they aren’t often the focus of news media, hunger and undernourishment are problems plaguing millions of people every day. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 3 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, an additional 112 million more people than in 2019. The increase was partly because of rising food prices, with the average cost of a healthy...
This year will mark the milestone of 8 billion people living on Earth. Whenever the global population is discussed the 1.4 billion Chinese and 1.3 billion Indians are touted. The other group of 1.4 billion people live on the continent of Africa.
The following is an excerpt from a Sankalp Africa 2022 panel talking with real African entrepreneurs about the challenges of fast-growing companies in Africa.
The speakers include the founders of Agro Supply, East Africa Fruits, Ziweto Enterprise, Paniel Meat Processing, Livestock Bank, and TRUK (Rwanda).
When the words “cash crop” is used in Africa, most people think first about coffee, tea, and cacao, if not also about cashews, mangoes, and palm oil. But no, those thoughts overlook the staples of cassava, maize, and yams, and the huge quantities of bananas, tomatoes, onions, and rice. Some of these products are grown more in Africa than anywhere else in the world: More more details...
Why are the opportunities in Africa larger than elsewhere in the world? Simple. Demographics. The average age in Europe is 42, with more people retiring each year than children being born. THe same is soon true in America, Asia, and Australia. But in Africa, the average age is only 19. In simple terms, half of everyone in Africa is child or teenager. A bit younger if you leave out North Africa...
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...