Social Venture Fund

The SVF aims to deliver the highest possible impact on four dimensions:

• Broaden opportunity across different facets of poverty including, but not limited to, economic opportunity, education, energy, health, housing, sanitation, and water.
• Deepen inclusion of poorer and underserved people, including women and the rural poor.
• Serve millions through sustainable and scalable solutions that can positively impact the lives of millions of people.
• Improve lives by empowering people to earn a living and meet their basic needs.

• What We Look For – We invest in strong and capable founding teams with experience in the geography/ industry and a long-term commitment to achieving clear, compelling and direct impact for households living in poverty. We also look at unique value proposition, scalability, traction and funding plan.
• Focus Sectors & Geography – We invest in Education, Energy, Health, Livelihoods, and Water and Sanitation in Eastern Africa.
• Funding Strategy – The Fund was created to address the “pioneer gap” by supporting early-stage social enterprises with a combination of investment capital and Board-level advisory support. The Fund invests in Seed and Series A rounds with ticket sizes ranging from $100k to $500k. In addition to investment capital, SVF provides Board-level advisory support and specific technical assistance, as required.

Current Portfolio

(As of December 31, 2023)

Amped Innovation PBC is a solar energy product manufacturer that enables off-grid households in sub-Saharan Africa to access high-quality, energy-efficient, affordable solar lights, home systems, and appliances, in order to improve their economic position and quality of life.

Arifu (Akengo Corp.) is a digital learning platform that provides end-users with free mobile-based education on best practices in financial planning, agriculture, and other topics to low-income learners, enabling households living in poverty to improve their economic position.

Eneza Education (M-Prep, Inc.) is a digital learning platform that provides affordable, mobile-based, interactive educational content to primary and secondary school students, enabling low-income students to improve their skills, test scores, and likelihood of continuing education.

Good Nature Agro Inc. is an agricultural social enterprise that provides smallholder farmers in Zambia and Malawi with enhanced access to markets and quality inputs (e.g., seeds and fertilizer) as well as technical assistance, enabling improvements in the economic position of smallholder households.

Kwanza Tukule Foods Ltd is a supply-chain intermediary that provides food micro-retailers in Kenya’s informal urban settlements with low-cost, quality inventory through efficient distribution channels, enabling time savings and improvement in net income.

PayGo Energy Inc. (acquired by Sun King in 2023) uses liquid petroleum gas (LPG) metering and distribution solutions to provide low-income households in Kenya – particularly women – with access to clean and efficient cooking fuel on an affordable pay-as-you-go basis, enabling improvements in household health and economic position.

Penda Health Limited is a network of outpatient health clinics that provides high-quality, low-cost primary care to low-income patients in Kenya, enabling households in poverty to improve their health and economic position.

Tugende Global Limited is a microfinance institution that provides motorcycle taxi microentrepreneurs in Uganda and Kenya with tailored lease-to-own asset financing along with asset warranty, accident insurance, and training, enabling households in poverty to increase their net income.

Turaco is an insurtech company in sub-Saharan Africa providing timely, affordable microinsurance coverage to clients of microfinance institutions, agribusinesses, mobile network operators, and others, enabling households living in poverty to better withstand financial shocks such as hospitalization, accident, or death of a family member.

YYTZ Agro-Processing, Inc. is an agricultural social enterprise that provides smallholder farmers in Tanzania with subsidized cashew tree seedlings, technical assistance, and enhanced access to markets to sell cashew nuts at a price premium, enabling improvements in the economic position of rural households.

Disclaimer: this is not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities.  Offers are made only following verification of eligibility and solely pursuant to a fund’s private offering materials.