Type of capital: Debt, equity (via holding company model)
Ticket size: n/a
Link: Grounded Investment Company
Description:
Grounded Investment Company (GIC) is a highly specialised, permanent investment company committed to improving and developing the agricultural sector in Africa. GIC invests in locally embedded agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers to build, scale and improve their businesses. Since 2013, the GIC team has built three agribusinesses from scratch in Zambia and South Africa, giving it deep operational and entrepreneurial experience. GIC made its first investment in Tanzania in 2021 and is preparing a second investment in Kenya. It has a strong focus on and experience in regenerative agriculture as a sustainable driver of economic growth on the continent in the long run. GIC leverages partnerships with the Regen Ag Facility for regenerative agriculture expertise and technical support and with Grounded Ingredients for premium marketing direct to brand.
Impact goals:
- Enable African entrepreneurs to scale their businesses: 1) capture and create more value by producing higher-quality ingredients and integrating post-farmgate processing; and 2) improve local economic conditions, especially in rural/peri-urban settings, creating direct and indirect job opportunities.
- Embed regenerative agriculture within a sustainable business environment: 1) create the economic underpinning needed to drive/incentivise the adoption of regenerative agriculture and de-risk the transition period for the farmer; and 2) improve farm profitability (regenerative production leads to improved product quality and reduced input costs, positively affecting farmer incomes and market access).
- Support farmers’ transition to regenerative agriculture: Improve soil and water quality (when managed regeneratively, agricultural lands sequester carbon, retain more water, mitigate climate change and halt biodiversity loss).
