Amazi
South Africa

Region
Africa

Topic
Employable skill building

Year of first investment
2017

Partner
Amazi Beauty Pty Ltd

Amazi supports training and employment as a solution to structural unemployment problems that particularly affect people in South Africa’s lowest income areas, so-called townships. Amazi empowers unemployed women through a holistic professional skill building program through which trainees are enabled to develop the necessary competencies to become financially and socially independent.

Learn more: Can cosmetic services drive economic inclusion?

Angaza Design
Worldwide

Region
Worldwide

Topic
Digital solutions

Year of first investment
2013

Partner
Angaza Design, Inc.

Angaza Design developed an innovative Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) technology that allows communication between small devices such as affordable solar lamps and the mobile network operator. Beneficiaries buy a product for as little as 5 USD and pay back the remaining amount through regular installments using the PAYG technology.

awamo
Uganda

Region
Africa

Topic
Digital solutions

Year of first investment
2017

Partner
awamo GmbH

awamo offers a software solution that allows Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to digitize their operations with a core banking system, and at the same time to anonymously exchange and verify credit information on borrowers. The company is building a technology infrastructure with the potential to revolutionize the unregulated financial market, thereby securing fair access to financial products for the base of the pyramid.

BagoSphere
Philippines

Region
Asia

Topic
Employable skill building

Year of first investment
2015

Partner
BagoSphere Pte. Ltd.

BagoSphere provides underprivileged youth in the Philippines with financially accessible professional training that subsequently allows them to take up a job in the country’s fast-growing call-center industry, thereby increasing their monthly income three to five fold. BagoSphere connects students with Microfinance Institutions to allow them to pay the training program tuition fee up-front and repay over a period of 12–18 months.

B'Ayoba
Zimbabwe

Region
Africa

Topic
Global agricultural value chains

Year of first investment
2016

Partner
B'Ayoba (Pvt) Ltd

Today, most of the fruits of the baobab trees in Zimbabwe fall to the ground where they rot unused. However, in the industrialized world, the powder of the fruit is gaining rapid recognition as a "superfood" for its range of nutritional benefits. Under the guidance of B’Ayoba, a Zimbabwean food production company, poor rural smallholder farmers collect the ripe fruits and bring them to local processing centers where the fruits are cracked and the pulp is separated from the shell. In B’Ayoba’s plant in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, the pulp is further processed and the baobab powder, a produce rich of vitamin C, calcium, potassium, iron, and magnesium, is packaged for export to Europe and North America.

Copia
Kenya

Region
Africa

Topic
Informal retail and last-mile distribution

Year of first investment
2017

Partner
Copia Global Inc.

Copia’s aim is to bring e-commerce to poor rural customers by building an efficient mobile technology-enabled last-mile distribution system. A network of agents, typically owners of small shops, have Copia’s product catalog on display, take orders, collect mobile money payments, and serve as delivery points, which allows them to earn a sales commission. Customers in turn get access to fairly-priced and reliably delivered goods that would otherwise not be available to them.

Coffee Circle
Ethiopia

Region
Africa

Topic
Global agricultural value chains

Year of first investment
2013

Partner
Circle Products GmbH

Coffee Circle is a dynamic Berlin-based startup founded by young entrepreneurs, whose mission is to bring the world’s best coffee from Ethiopia to Europe via online sales and in turn help improve living conditions of coffee farmers significantly. Coffee Circle attaches great importance to the establishment of sustainable relationships with suppliers and trades the specialty coffee directly with the farmers in Ethiopia.

Learn more: Can I find the world's best coffee online?

Dharma Life
India

Region
Asia

Topic
Informal retail and last-mile distribution

Year of first investment
2015

Partner
Gajam India Ltd.

Dharma Life’s goal is to create and manage a rural distribution network for affordable, innovative products and services tailored to the needs of households at the base of the pyramid. The offering addresses six causes: Access to clean energy, safe drinking water, livelihood products, reduction of indoor air pollution, as well as improvement of nutrition and personal hygiene. Dharma Life recruits, trains, and supports village-level entrepreneurs (so-called Dharma Life Entrepreneurs, DLEs) to act as local representatives and sales agents of Dharma Life, anchoring the organization and its services in the village community.

Learn more: What are consumers in rural India actually looking for?

Digital Divide Data
Kenya

Region
Africa

Topic
Employable skill building

Year of first investment
2017

Partner
Digital Divide Data

Digital Divide Data (DDD) is a pioneer in Impact Sourcing, an economically sustainable approach to alleviate poverty by providing training, employment, and higher education to underprivileged youth. DDD’s new cloud practice in Kenya strives to become the first Amazon Web Service (AWS) Partner in East Africa, creating next generation, sustainable jobs, and further strengthening DDD’s leading role in the impact IT outsourcing industry.

East Africa Fruits
Tanzania

Region
Africa

Topic
Global agricultural value chains

Year of first investment
2020

Partner
East Africa Fruits

East Africa Fruits Co. sources fresh fruits and vegetables from local smallholder farmers in Tanzania and sells them both on the formal and on the informal markets in Dar es Salaam. By cutting out middlemen from the supply chain, EAF has established a direct link between supply and demand and can therefore offer higher prices to the farmers and support them with advice on increasing their yield and quality. Moreover, East Africa Fruits leverages modern logistics and streamlined processes in order to reduce post-harvest losses and food waste, as well as to ensure access to higher quality fresh produce for its customers in Dar es Salaam.

Essmart
India

Region
Asia

Topic
Informal retail and last-mile distribution

Year of first investment
2018

Partner
Essmart Global, Inc.

Essmart is building an innovative last-mile distribution channel that enables socially impactful goods, such as improved agricultural tools and efficient household devices, to reach and impact their intended end customers. The company cooperates directly with small local mom & pop (“kirana”) shops and thus ensures that fairly priced quality products are available directly at the places where people need them and where they already shop.

iCow
Kenya

Region
Africa

Topic
Digital solutions

Year of first investment
2013

Partner
Green Dreams TECH Ltd.

Green Dreams, a social company based in Nairobi, Kenia, developed iCow, an innovative agricultural information platform that is accessed primarily via mobile SMS, with the goal of delivering pertinent and timely information to an eco-system of agribusiness actors. Through iCow, farmers receive advice on agricultural best practices, track their cows through their respective estrus cycles, and get contact information of a variety of agricultural service providers.

Learn more: Do a few sms make me a better farmer?

Inka Moss
Peru

Region
South America

Topic
Global agricultural value chains

Year of first investment
2018

Partner
Inka Moss S.A.

Inka Moss generates work for very low-income communities in the Andean highlands by creating an inclusive value chain of a previously unused natural resource called sphagnum moss. The plant grows wild in the Andes and has unique properties which make it an ideal natural substrate in the horticulture (e.g., Orchids) market. Inka Moss collaborates with rural communities by teaching them about the value of the moss and buying it at fair prices. The moss is then processed by Inka Moss and sold on the global market.

J-Palm
Liberia

Region
Africa

Topic
Global agricultural value chains

Year of first investment
2021

Partner
J-Palm Liberia

While palm oil is globally associated with environmental degradation, land grabbing, and wildlife habitat destruction, palm trees are a native plant in West Africa. Local smallholder farmers though do not leverage the fruits of the native trees on their land due to a disconnect from technology and the market. J-Palm operates an innovative model sourcing organic and sustainable palm oil in rural areas in Liberia to produce health and beauty products for the local as well as the export markets. In doing so, J-Palm creates income opportunities for thousands of smallholders.

Leap Skills
India

Region
Asia

Topic
Employable Skill Building

Year of first investment
2019

Partner
Leap Skills India

Leap Skills provides employer demanded services to bridge the gap between jobseekers and employers in India. They have developed an effective skilling program providing jobseekers from rural and low-income backgrounds with the employable skills that employers are struggling to find and give these jobseekers access to the formal labor market.

Lynk
Kenya

Region
Africa

Topic
Digital solutions

Year of first investment
2019

Partner
Lynk Kenya

Lynk provides an online platform that connects vetted, informal sector workers (i.e. carpenters, electricians, plumbers) with households and businesses in need of their services in Kenya. By focusing on worker vetting, intelligent job matching, as well as relevant support and standardization, Lynk enables informal workers to provide high quality services and live a more sustainable life through growing their business.

Ricult
Thailand & Pakistan

Region
Asia

Topic
Digital solutions

Year of first investment
2020

Partner
Ricult

The agricultural supply chains in developing countries remain very fragmented with a large disconnect between smallholder farmers and companies servicing them. Ricult operates a digital platform that provides smallholder farmers in Pakistan and Thailand with relevant information on farming know-how, market conditions, and financing opportunities. By connecting farmers with agriculture companies and financial institutions, Ricult builds an ecosystem that facilitates information flows and transactions in an otherwise underserved market segment.

Smart Dukas Nairobi
Kenya

Region
Africa

Topic
Informal retail and last-mile distribution

Year of first investment
2016

Partner
TechnoServe Kenya

Through a comprehensive approach, owners of small grocery shops (called “Dukas” in Kenya) in poor neighborhoods of Nairobi are trained in basic business skills – such as cost management, product selection and marketing – and receive dozens of hours of professional in-shop consulting to implement tailor-made action plans. Under the unified brand “Smart Duka”, the venture's goal is to substantially improve the business position of traditional Dukas, and thus to secure the jobs of the shop owners and their families.

Vega Coffee
Nicaragua and Colombia

Region
Central and South America

Topic
Global agricultural value chains

Year of first investment
2019

Partner
Vega Coffee, Inc.

Vega Coffee leverages an innovative approach to coffee production and distribution. The company trains and hires selected farmers to work in their roastery and roasts quality coffee alongside farmers in Nicaragua and Colombia. The farmers learn how to select specialty-grade coffee beans, roast them and taste the final product. The roasters then train their fellow cooperative members how to produce higher value, quality coffee beans. Vega Coffee delivers the coffee to American consumers within 3 days of roasting.

Virohan
India

Region
Asia

Topic
Employable Skill Building

Year of first investment
2019

Partner
Virohan

India’s healthcare sector desperately seeks qualified employees. Meanwhile, youth from low-income families are cut off from opportunities in this sector. They lack access to high-quality, market-driven education. Virohan bridges that gap by offering vocational training programs that equip the students with the technical and soft skills to successfully contribute to India’s healthcare sector in administrative and technical hospital jobs. Virohan has established partnerships with student financing partners, which enables them to make the training affordable to low-income students. Their model also includes a very strong network of hospitals that act as placement partners, where the students can complete internships and start their careers after graduation.