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Kenafric Group, the Kenyan consumer goods company, has launched Kenafric Ventures, a $10 million corporate venture fund to invest in African consumer businesses.
It will invest between $100,000 and $2 million in early-stage companies that have shown product-market fit and are ready to grow. Alongside capital, founders will be able to draw on the manufacturing, distribution and market know-how Kenafric has built since 1987. The fund is managed by corporate venture studio S2E Africa and was designed with support from FSD Africa, a Nairobi-based financial sector development organisation.
Kenafric Ventures will focus on consumer businesses in food and beverage, and beauty and personal care as well as consumer-facing retail platforms. These include direct-to-consumer brands, experiential consumer companies and adjacent categories.
The programme has been designed on the basis that access to capital is only one of the challenges facing consumer businesses looking to scale across African markets. Other challenges include different regulatory regimes, uneven infrastructure and complex distribution channels. Alongside investment, selected companies will be able to access relevant capabilities and networks across the Kenafric ecosystem.
Mikul Shah, chief executive officer of Kenafric Group, said: “Building a great product is only the beginning. We have spent nearly four decades learning how to get a product from a factory in Nairobi onto shelves in shops across East Africa. That knowledge can be as valuable to a young consumer business as the cheque itself. Our ambition is to become the scaling partner of choice for Africa’s most promising consumer businesses.”
Pulkit Srivastava, founder and chief executive officer of S2E Africa, commented: “For consumer founders, the right corporate partner brings capabilities that are hard to replicate through capital alone. A relationship that begins with an investment can grow into distribution, manufacturing, expansion into new markets and, potentially, a future acquisition.”
“Corporate capital in Africa is abundant, but very little of it reaches startups,” added Juliet Munro, director of early-stage finance at FSD Africa. “Where large companies do engage with entrepreneurs, it tends to be through CSR. That work matters, but investing in businesses built to last belongs alongside it. Kenafric Ventures demonstrates the willingness of African corporate capital to provide both the financing and the operational know-how that will help the continent’s entrepreneurial talent to thrive. We hope many more African corporations follow.”
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