Mapping Agriculture Investing in Africa – a new resource from Village Capital  

Small Foundation is pleased to share an illuminating new piece of research by our partner Village Capital, entitled Mapping Agriculture Investing in Africa. The report outlines the opportunities and need for finance in the African agriculture sector, juxtaposing this demand with the low levels of investment supply. The report categorises six different types of investor, profiling a number of each. Overall, the report paints a picture of insufficient investment across the continent, although it also highlights where investors are engaging. 

Village Capital has been our partner since 2016. Village Capital finds, trains and invests in early-stage entrepreneurs with business solutions to major global problems. We continue to be inspired by its innovative peer-selected investment model, which is a collaborative, bottom-up approach to investing in start-ups.  

Small Foundation initially partnered with Village Capital to help expand its Africa practice, with a focus on an agricultural enterprise accelerator programme. The goal was to provide a more accessible route to finance for local entrepreneurs. We wondered what an agricultural accelerator would look like, how it might evolve to suit the entrepreneurs, what already existed in the ecosystem, and who was investing? 

From this emerged Village Capital’s Africa Agriculture 2019 investment readiness programme, which trained nine agricultural ventures operating across seven sub-Saharan African countries. The mapping research is part of this programme. We hope it will provoke conversations around how to improve access to finance in the agriculture sector, to facilitate sustainable growth and poverty eradication.