Pearl Capital Partners is a fund manager that invests in agribusiness enterprises in East Africa. The firm has offices in Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi, Kenya. Its most recent fund, the Yield Uganda Investment Fund, has made seven investments in Uganda worth over €5.8 million. These include: Sesaco – a processor of soy products; Chemiphar – an…
In 2004, private equity firm Pearl Capital Partners set up African Agricultural Capital (AAC) with the ambition of stimulating investment in agricultural businesses in East Africa. The fund was formally closed in 2019. AAC was one of the first agricultural impact investment vehicles in the region. Investors collectively committed $9 million in AAC, which the fund fully…
This edition of The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets focuses on how markets can bring us closer to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SOCO 2020 offers a detailed analysis of the major global trends in agri-food markets and trade to identify how to reap economic, environmental and social gains and spur overall development.…
Why does CDC care about SMEs? Formal SMEs contribute up to 40% of national income in emerging economies, according to the World Bank, yet they suffer from a lack of access to finance. These businesses are critically important if we are to support economies across the continent to not only recover from the COVID pandemic but…
The World Bank, in its Global Economic Prospect 2021, has said Uganda’s agricultural sector will be among the most resilient sector in 2021. Uganda, the World Bank said, will be among the five countries in sub Saharan Africa that will experience the least contraction in agriculture. This, according to the World Bank, implies that agriculture will support…
The partnership between Microsoft and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), enabled through the Microsoft 4Afrika initiative, will enhance AGRA’s digital transformation agenda as it works to improve food security for 30 million farming households across 11 countries by 2021. Microsoft has, together with the AGRA, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to co-create…
This year’s Africa Agriculture Status Report (AASR) focuses on Feeding Africa’s Cities by assessing the opportunities, challenges and policies required to enable African farmers and agribusinesses to serve the rapidly growing urban food markets. The report seeks to find ways for smallholder farmers to drive food security, rural prosperity, and inclusive economic growth. The 2020…
Private equity is an alternative investment class and consists of capital that is not listed on a public exchange. Private equity is composed of funds and investors that directly invest in private companies, or that engage in buyouts of public companies, resulting in the delisting of public equity. Institutional and retail investors provide the capital for private equity, and the capital can…
The Covid-19 pandemic has destroyed livelihoods and scattered millions of jobs around the world. The International Labor Organization estimates that nearly 1.6 billion people’s livelihoods are now threatened with the greatest impact being felt by those in the informal sector. However, the pandemic has also brought to the fore numerous opportunities in Agribusiness that the…