Tag: africa

Emiliano Mroue – Raising $7.5 million to scale from working with 20.000 to 100.000 farmers

A conversation with Emiliano Mroue, founder of WARC, about their recent funding round, being close to the farmers and why he left a corporate job in Germany to start a farmer focussed anti poverty company in Sierra Leone which turned into a company serving today over 20.000 farmers, mostly in Ghana, in the transition to more regenerative practices. What is their secret to be close to the farmers always, not quite often but always?

Smallholder maize farmers at the edge of the Sahara, brutal circumstances in the Sahel mean most farmers are growing to eat and to survive and, with climate change and current farming practices burn and deep tilling, their survival is literally on the line. These soils can be depleted in a decade or less, not like in the global North where we might have 50 to 60 harvests left. So how do you go about behaviour change with farmers that are in poverty, you want to help them to change, but don’t want to risk their fragile livelihood? How do you find the recipes that work in the local context?

In March 2024, the Ghana-based agricultural service provider Warc Africa has successfully closed its Series B round, securing $7.5 million. The fresh capital raised aims to boost Warc Africa’s reach to serve over 100,000 farmers in Ghana, increase their incomes, and protect the soils.

Joachim Ewechu and Hannes Van den Eeckhout – Why Uganda is the best place for a locally owned regenerative agriculture revolution

A conversation with Joachim Ewechu and Hannes Van den Eeckhout, co-founders of Rootical, a start-up studio that enables purpose-driven entrepreneurs in Uganda to build and own their regenerative agri-food companies. We talk about why Uganda is the place to launch and build agroecology, regenerative agriculture, and food companies, why Uganda enjoys political support for agroecology, the importance of different steward-type ownership models, the importance of different investment models, and more.

Sven Verwiel – How to unlock the potential of syntropic agroforestry in East Africa

A conversation with Sven Verwiel of ForestFoods, a Kenyan based premium produce brand, about the potential of syntropic agroforestry in Kenya, and what we can learn from the over 40 years of experience in Brazil and what is needed to apply it at scale in the local East African context as well as why is the African continent the crucial and most interesting place to apply regenerative practises.

Luni Libes – Building a Warren Buffet style portfolio while serving 1M African smallholder farmers

A conversation with Luni Libes, serial entrepreneur and investor, about the enormous opportunities of African food companies and on buying from smallholder famers and selling into the local regional markets. We also discuss why the traditional venture capital model doesn’t make any sense and a holding company does, plus why and how he wants to take the holding company public in a few years’ time.

Gijs Boers on why the biggest drive to the growth of regenerative agriculture is quality

A check in interview with Gijs Boers of Grounded on how their fair and transparent wholesale regenerative ingredient business is doing.

Soil Builders, for robots not all weeds are created egual

A check in with Brent Kessel, investor in the New African Farmers bond, plus a deep dive with Ben Scott Robbinson of the Small Robot Company into the role of small robots in regenerative agriculture and why not all weeds are created equal.

Soil Builders, using a bond to scale regenerative approaches in West Africa

An interview with Emiliano Mroue, co founder of the WARC group, on how they are applying regenerative approaches with smallholder farmers in Ghana and Sierra Leone. And how they are raising capital through the innovative New African Farmers Bond to scale their work.

Martijn Blom, investing 15m into regen food/agri companies in Sub Saharan Africa

Entrepreneur turned impact investor with a new found passion for SOIL: an interview withMartijn Blom, senior manager investor relationships at Hivos Impact Investments, the impact investment arm of a large dutch NGO.