The Agribusiness Capital (ABC Fund) is a €200m impact fund with a focus on profitable investments that help drive poverty eradication, food security, increase productivity, local value addition, access to finance and markets and job creation focusing on underserved segments such as women and youth, whilst fostering innovation and promoting climate-resilient agriculture practices.

It provides investment in the form of working capital facilities, term loans and equity to small and medium sized entrepreneurs (SMEs), farmer organizations, service providers, Agri-entrepreneurs, traditional financial institutions and alternative lenders along the agricultural value chain in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The ABC Fund provides one-stop-shop for investing solutions by combining direct debt financing with technical assistance, financial intermediation and potential equity investments. Injaro is the investment advisor to the fund and is responsible for direct investments to SMEs and farmer organizations.

Fund Partners Fund Strategy Fund Criteria

Fund Criteria

types of companies

‍The Fund will invest along the agriculture value chains, which consists of a series of interconnected actors (directly or indirectly linked to smallholder farmers), including:

Producers;
Input suppliers, such as manufacturers or distributors of seeds, fertilizers, crop protection, irrigation systems, veterinary medicines or agricultural machinery;
Service companies, such as traders, marketplace operators, or providers of market data, analyses or new technologies;
Companies that produce, maintain or operate storage facilities such as cold or dry storage facilities;
Processors of primary agricultural products, such as mills, crushing plants, dairy companies, fish processors, slaughterhouses and other processors of livestock;
Logistics companies that transport and handle primarily agricultural goods;
Processors of secondary agricultural goods/food products, such as bakeries, beverage companies, producers of semi-packaged or packaged fruits, vegetables or meat products, etc.

stage of business

Post revenue generating; must have at least two (2) years of operational history

financial requirements

Revenue: ≥€180,000
EBITDA Margin: ≥5%
Net Income Margin: ≥0%
Collateral coverage: very flexible collateral requirements

Fund Strategy

Across its spectrum of direct and indirect investments, the Fund will focus on 4 underlying themes that are likely to have the greatest potential of improving and transforming agricultural and agribusiness SMEs and smallholder farmers’ livelihoods.

i. Market participation by integrating SMEs and farmers
SMEs/smallholder farmers in developing countries, and Sub Saharan Africa are diverse, often unorganized and dispersed making it difficult to engage and integrate them into the formal national, regional and global value chains. Access to markets, inputs (seeds, fertilizers, crop protection),irrigation, crop financing, crop insurance, risk management tools, information, finance and technology is more readily available and more cost efficient for aggregated.

Businesses/models that sustainably create aggregation points and integrate SMEs/smallholder farmers are critical to creating wealth and promoting a thriving sustainable and inclusive agricultural sector. Aggregators will be a focus area in the ABC fund investment strategy. Partnerships with them in various value chains will be key to directly and indirectly reaching SMEs and smallholder farmers.

ii. Addressing specific value chain bottlenecks
The performance of agricultural supply chains is often limited by fragmented market structures (with poor price discovery mechanisms for farmers), generally low yields and labor productivity, lack of logistical and storage infrastructures, and poor linkages to markets.

The Fund will focus on SMEs that efficiently address identified bottlenecks on specific value chains. This strategic angle shall help in unlocking unrealized economic value for the benefit of all actors across the value chain, but preferably for smallholder farmers, women and youth.

iii. Local production, value add/transformation and certification/traceability
Africa has lost its status as a net exporter of agricultural products for some time. Since 1980, agricultural imports (the current annual food import bill is estimated at USD 35 billion) have grown consistently faster than agricultural exports yielding a deficit of about USD 16-17 billion as at 2016.

Focus will be put on crops/commodities with the commercial potential to unlock value through Import substitution, local or export market development, and local transformation/value-addition

iv. Propelling Ag-tech, innovation and climate smart agriculture and value chains
The adoption of and access to agricultural technologies (e.g. data-driven precision farming; energy-efficient technologies; real-time market information; water management technologies; more reliable cooling and supply chains; tech-enabled financial/insurance services for farmers) are pivotal for achieving profitable farm and non-farm SMEs, effective market integration and participation for smallholder farmers.

Focus will therefore be put on innovations and Ag-tech that bring benefits to smallholder farmers.

Agribusiness Capital FUND

Fund Criteria

types of companies

stage of business

financial requirements

Fund Strategy

Our Partners

Agribusiness Capital FUND

Fund Criteria

types of companies

stage of business

financial requirements

Fund Strategy

Our Partners

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